The Calvary Road

by

Roy and Revel Hession

Christian Literature CrusadeFort Washington, Pennsylvania

Contents

PREFACE

1. BROKENNESS

2. CUPS RUNNING OVER

3. THE WAY OF FELLOWSHIP

4. THE HIGHWAY OF HOLINESS

5. THE DOVE AND THE LAMB

6. REVIVAL IN THE HOME

7. THE MOTE AND THE BEAM

8. ARE YOU WILLING TO BE A SERVANT

9. THE POWER OF THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB

10. PROTESTING OUR INNOCENCE?

INTRODUCTION

By NORMAN P. GRUBB, Hon. Secretary of the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade, London

I am sure from my own experience, as well as from what we have seenin the ranks of our Mission these last three years, that what theauthors tell us about in these pages is one of God's vital words toHis worldwide church today. For long I had regarded revival only fromthe angle of some longed for, but very rare, sudden outpouring of theSpirit on a company of people. I felt that there was a missing linksomewhere. Knowing of the continuing revival on a certain missionfield, and because it was continuing and not merely sudden andpassing, I long felt that they had a further secret we needed tolearn. Then the chance came for heart-to-heart fellowship with them, first through one of our own missionary leaders whose life andministry had been transformed by a visit to that field, and thenthrough conferences with some of their missionaries on furlough andfinally through the privilege of having two of the native brethrenliving for six months at our headquarters. 

From them I learned and saw that revival is first personal andimmediate. It is the constant experience of any simplest Christianwho "walks in the light, " but I saw that walking in the light meansan altogether new sensitiveness to sin, a calling things by theirproper name of sin, such as pride, hardness, doubt, fear, self-pity, which are often passed over as merely human reaction. It means areadiness to "break" and confess at the feet of Him who was brokenfor us, for the Blood does not cleanse excuses, but always cleansessin, confessed as sin; then revival is just the daily experience of asoul full of Jesus and running over. 

Further, we are beginning to learn, as a company of Christ'switnesses, that the rivers of life to the world do not flow out intheir fulness through one man, but through the body, the team. Ourbrokenness and openness must be two-way, horizontal as well asvertical, with one another as with God. We are just beginning toexperience in our own ranks that team work in the Spirit is one ofthe keys to revival, and that we have to learn and practice the lawsof a living fellowship. 

I need not say more, as Roy Hession and his wife expound the wholematter. But we have seen God at work in our midst. I could namehalf-a-dozen of our workers, several of them leaders, in whose livesthere has been a new spiritual revolution. Then rivulets of blessingin some of our individual lives have been merging in a larger stream. God has been giving us times as a company when "as they prayed, theplace was shaken where they were assembled together, and they wereall filled with the Holy Ghost. " Here and there on our battle fields, distant and near, the sound of abundance of rain is being heard; andwe believe among many companies of God's people He is preparingafresh for these last days a "sharp threshing instrument havingteeth, " and that what God is saying to us through this Revival, andthrough the interpretation of that message in this pamphlet, is aword of the Lord for our day. May it be greatly used to producerevived lives, revived fellowships and revived churches. PREFACE

In April, 1947, several missionaries came at my invitation to anEaster Conference which I was organising. I invited them to come asspeakers, because I had heard that they had been experiencing Revivalin their field for a number of years, and I was interested inRevival. What they had to say was very different from much of what Ihad associated with Revival. It was very simple and very quiet. Asthey unfolded their message and gave their testimonies, I discoveredthat I was the neediest person in the conference and was far more inneed of being revived than I had ever realised. That discovery, however, only came slowly to me. Being myself one of the speakers, Isuppose I was more concerned about others' needs than my own. As mywife and others humbled themselves before God and experienced thecleansing of the precious Blood of Jesus, I found myself leftsomewhat high and dry--dry just because I was high. I was stumbled bythe simplicity of the message, or rather the simplicity of what I hadto do to be revived and filled with the Spirit. When others at theend of the conference testified of how Jesus had broken them at HisCross and filled their hearts to overflowing with His Holy Spirit, Ihad no such testimony. It was only afterwards that I was enabled togive up trying to fit things into my doctrinal scheme, and comehumbly to the Cross for cleansing from my own personal sins. It waslike beginning my Christian life all over again. My flesh "came againlike that of a little child, " as did Naaman's when he was willing tohumble himself and dip himself in Jordan. And it has been analtogether new chapter in life since then. It has meant, however, that I have had to choose constantly to die to the big "I, " thatJesus might be all, and constantly to come to Him for cleansing inHis precious Blood. But that is just why it is a new chapter. 

At that time my wife and I had been issuing a little paper which wecalled "Challenge, " in which we were seeking to lead young Christiansinto a deeper experience of the Lord Jesus. It was natural, then, that in the following issue we should put down what God had shown us. We simply put down in print the Message of Revival as it had come tous. There was a sudden and surprising demand for the little paper, because it carried this simple message. As we continued to writefurther of the Message of Revival in subsequent issues, the demandcontinued to increase surprisingly. Letters came in almost every daytelling of the way God was blessing His people through it, and askingfor further supplies. Requests began to come from far away countries, to which the little paper was finding its way, and news began to comeof the beginnings of revival in the lives of God's people in variousparts. Translations too were made into French and German. We had beencaught up in the current of God's working beyond anything we expectedor deserved. Indeed we had nothing to glory in, for it became evidentthat revival blessing was not so much the result of "Challenge, " asthat "Challenge" was the result of revival blessing. God was at workin many hearts and in many parts. The testimony of those who had beenrevived made others hungry, who in turn found their way to the Cross, and so the blessing spread from life to life. And wherever theblessing spread, the little paper seemed to go, for it sought to putin clear and Scriptural language what so many were beginning toexperience. 

The connection of all this with the present little book is that thisbook is simply a collection of some of those numbers of "Challenge. "Circumstances make it difficult at the moment for us to continue tosend out further issues of "Challenge, " and yet the requests for backnumbers have continued to come in. There is obviously a need for thissimple Message of Revival to be made available to a wider circle ofreaders, for there is a growing thirst in God's people for the Riversof Living Water. And so, encouraged by God's blessing on what hasgone before, we have put together some of the more helpful numbers of"Challenge, " together with two extra chapters, and send them on theirway, looking to God to use them as He will. We cannot boast that thiscontains an orderly treatment of our subject chapter by chapter. Eacharticle was designed to be complete in itself, and therefore now thatthey are put together in one pamphlet, there cannot but be a gooddeal of overlapping, and certain things will be seen to be repeatedagain and again. It cannot, therefore, be regarded as an ordinarybook, and the chapters might best be read each one on its own, ratherthan the whole of them at one sitting. 

It must not be thought that this pamphlet represents a purelypersonal contribution on our part. The things recorded in this bookhave been learnt in fellowship with others in various parts, who havebegun, like ourselves, to walk the Way of the Cross in a new way. Anyothers in that fellowship might have written these chapters. It is afellowship, too, which is continually growing, for an ever-increasingnumber of lives are being quietly influenced and blessed by themovement of Revival in this country now. This fact, we think, adds tothe strength and significance of what is here written. 

Now a word about Revival itself. The conception of Revival containedin the following pages may come as a surprise to many. The commonconception of Revival is usually that of a spectacular religiousawakening, in which large numbers of the unconverted are convicted ofsin and brought to Christ amid a good deal of excitement. Such avisitation of God's Spirit, while greatly to be desired, is thoughtto be largely unaccountable. It is something for which one can onlypray and we must wait for it in God's good time. Meantime we must goon being defeated and the Church must somehow contrive to continueher witness without New Life. Some of us are finding in actual factthat true revival is often the very reverse of all this. Revival neednot be spectacular at all (it is certainly no spectacle to the onewho is facing up to his sins in the light of the Cross!). Indeedwhere there is evidence of the spectacular, it is often the leastimportant part of revival. Our missionary friends seemed studiouslyto avoid reference to the spectacular side of what they had beenthrough, lest it might obscure the real challenge of what God wassaying to us. Then, too, revival is not something that God doesfirstly among the unconverted, but among His people. Revival simplymeans New Life, and that implies that there is already Life there, but that the Life has ebbed. The unconverted do not need revival, forthere is not any life there to revive. They need vival. It is theChristians who need revival. But that presupposes that there has beena declension. You only revive that which has grown weak. And theyonly are candidates for revival who are prepared to confess thatthere has been a declension in their lives. And the more specific theconfession, the more definitely will God revive. And when thathappens among us Christians, God will be able to work among the lostin new power and we shall see a new work of grace there. One of EvanRoberts' mottoes in the days of the Welsh Revival was "Bend theChurch and save the people. " And the two are always linked. The worldhas lost its faith, because the Church has lost its fire. 

One last thing needs to be said about the necessary attitude of heartof the reader. If God is to bless him at all through these pages, hemust come to them with a deep hunger of heart. He must be possessedwith a dissatisfaction of the state of the Church in general, and ofhimself in particular--especially of himself. He must be willing forGod to begin His work in himself first, rather than in the other man. He must, moreover, be possessed with the holy expectancy that God canand will meet his need. If he is in any sense a Christian leader, theurgency of the matter is intensified many times over. His willingnessto admit his need and be blessed will determine the degree to whichGod can bless the people to whom he ministers. Above all he mustrealise that he must be the first to humble himself at the Cross. Ifa new honesty with regard to sin is needed among his people, he mustrealise it must begin with himself. It was when the King of Nineveharose from his throne and covered himself with sackcloth and sat inashes as a sign of his repentance, that his people repented. 

Let not, however, those readers who are not leaders be tempted tolook at those who are and wait for them. God wants to begin with eachone of us. He wants to begin with YOU. 

May God bless us all. 

Roy HESSION. January, 1950. 

CHAPTER IBROKENNESS

We want to be very simple in this matter of Revival. Revival is justthe life of the Lord Jesus poured into human hearts. Jesus is alwaysvictorious. In heaven they are praising Him all the time for Hisvictory. Whatever may be our experience of failure and barrenness, Heis never defeated. His power is boundless. And we, on our part, haveonly to get into a right relationship with Him, and we shall see Hispower being demonstrated in our hearts and lives and service, and Hisvictorious life will fill us and overflow through us to others. Andthat is Revival in its essence. 

If, however, we are to come into this right relationship with Him, the first thing we must learn is that our wills must be broken to Hiswill. To be broken is the beginning of Revival. It is painful, it ishumiliating, but it is the only way. It is being "Not I, butChrist, "[footnote1:Gal. 2: 20. ] and a "C" is a bent "I. " The LordJesus cannot live in us fully and reveal Himself through us until theproud self within us is broken. This simply means that the hardunyielding self, which justifies itself, wants its own way, stands upfor its rights, and seeks its own glory, at last bows its head toGod's will, admits its wrong, gives up its own way to Jesus, surrenders its rights and discards its own glory--that the Lord Jesusmight have all and be all. In other words it is dying to self andself-attitudes. 

And as we look honestly at our Christian lives, we can see how muchof this self there is in each of us. It is so often self who tries tolive the Christian life (the mere fact that we use the word "try"indicates that it is self who has the responsibility). It is self, too, who is often doing Christian work. It is always self who getsirritable and envious and resentful and critical and worried. It isself who is hard and unyielding in its attitudes to others. It isself who is shy and self-conscious and reserved. No wonder we needbreaking. As long as self is in control, God can do little with us, for all the fruits of the Spirit (they are enumerated in Galatians5), with which God longs to fill us, are the complete antithesis ofthe hard, unbroken spirit within us and presupposes that it has beencrucified. 

Being broken is both God's work and ours. He brings His pressure tobear, but we have to make the choice. If we are really open toconviction as we seek fellowship with God (and willingness for thelight is the prime condition of fellowship with God), God will showus the expressions of this proud, hard self that cause Him pain. Thenit is, we can stiffen our necks and refuse to repent or we can bowthe head and say, "Yes, Lord. " Brokenness in daily experience issimply the response of humility to the conviction of God. Andinasmuch as this conviction is continuous, we shall need to be brokencontinually. And this can be very costly, when we see all theyielding of rights and selfish interests that this will involve, andthe confessions and restitutions that may be sometimes necessary. 

For this reason, we are not likely to be broken except at the Crossof Jesus. The willingness of Jesus to be broken for us is theall-compelling motive in our being broken too. We see Him, Who is inthe form of God, counting not equality with God a prize to be graspedat and hung on to, but letting it go for us and taking upon Him theform of a Servant--God's Servant, man's Servant. We see Him willingto have no rights of His own, no home of His own, no possessions ofHis own, willing to let men revile Him and not revile again, willingto let men tread on Him and not retaliate or defend Himself. Aboveall, we see Him broken as He meekly goes to Calvary to become men'sscapegoat by bearing their sins in His own body on the Tree. In apathetic passage in a prophetic Psalm, He says, "I am a worm and noman. "[footnote2:Psalm 22: 6. ] Those who have been in tropical landstell us that there is a big difference between a snake and a worm, when you attempt to strike at them. The snake rears itself up andhisses and tries to strike back--a true picture of self. But a wormoffers no resistance, it allows you to do what you like with it, kickit or squash it under your heel--a picture of true brokenness. AndJesus was willing to become just that for us--a worm and no man. AndHe did so, because that is what He saw us to be, worms havingforfeited all rights by our sin, except to deserve hell. And He nowcalls us to take our rightful place as worms for Him and with Him. The whole Sermon on the Mount with its teaching of non-retaliation, love for enemies and selfless giving, assumes that that is ourposition. But only the vision of the Love that was willing to bebroken for us can constrain us to be willing for that. 

"Lord, bend that proud and stiff necked I, Help me to bow the head and die;Beholding Him on Calvary, Who bowed His head for me. "

But dying to self is not a thing we do once for all. There may be aninitial dying when God first shows these things, but ever after itwill be a constant dying, for only so can the Lord Jesus be revealedconstantly through us. [footnote3: 2 Cor. 4: 10. ] All day long thechoice will be before us in a thousand ways. It will mean no plans, no time, no money, no pleasure of our own. It will mean a constantyielding to those around us, for our yieldedness to God is measuredby our yieldedness to man. Every humiliation, everyone who tries andvexes us, is God's way of breaking us, so that there is a yet deeperchannel in us for the Life of Christ. 

You see, the only life that pleases God and that can be victorious isHis life--never our life, no matter how hard we try. But inasmuch asour self-centred life is the exact opposite of His, we can never befilled with His life unless we are prepared for God to bring our lifeconstantly to death. And in that we must co-operate by our moralchoice. 

CHAPTER 2CUPS RUNNING OVER

Brokenness, however, is but the beginning of Revival. Revival itselfis being absolutely filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit, andthat is victorious living. If we were asked this moment if we werefilled with the Holy Spirit, how many of us would dare to answer"yes"? Revival is when we can say "yes" at any moment of the day. Itis not egoistic to say so, for filling to overflowing is utterly andcompletely God's work--it is all of grace. All we have to do is topresent our empty, broken self and let Him fill and keep filled. Andrew Murray says, "Just as water ever seeks and fills the lowestplace, so the moment God finds you abased and empty, His glory andpower flow in. " The picture that has made things simple and clear toso many of us is that of the human heart as a cup, which we hold outto Jesus, longing that He might fill it with the Water of Life. Jesusis pictured as bearing the golden water pot with the Water of Life. As He passes by, He looks into our cup and if it is clean, He fillsto overflowing with the Water of Life. And as Jesus is always passingby, the cup can be always running over. That is something of whatDavid meant, when he said, "My cup runneth over. " This isRevival--you and I--full to overflowing with blessing ourselves andto others--with a constant peace in our hearts. People imagine thatdying to self makes one miserable. But it just the opposite. It isthe refusal to die to self that makes one miserable. The more we knowof death with Him, the more we shall know of His life in us, and sothe more of real peace and joy. His life, too, will overflow throughus to lost souls in a real concern for their salvation, and to ourfellow Christians in a deep desire for their blessing. 

Under the Blood. 

Only one thing prevents Jesus filling our cups as He passes by, andthat is sin in one of its thousand forms. The Lord Jesus does notfill dirty cups. Anything that springs from self, however small itmay be, is sin. Self-energy or self-complacency in service is sin. Self-pity in trials or difficulties, self-seeking in business orChristian work, self-indulgence in one's spare time, sensitiveness, touchiness, resentment and self-defence when we are hurt or injuredby others, self-consciousness, reserve, worry, fear, all spring fromself and all are sin and make our cups unclean. [*] But all of them wereput into that other cup, which the Lord Jesus shrank from momentarilyin Gethsemane, but which He drank to the dregs at Calvary--the cup ofour sin. And if we will allow Him to show us what is in our cups andthen give it to Him, He will cleanse them in the precious Blood thatstill flows for sin. That does not mean mere cleansing from the guiltof sin, nor even from the stain of sin--though thank God both ofthese are true--but from the sin itself, whatever it may be. And asHe cleanses our cups, so He fills them to overflowing with His HolySpirit. 

And we are able daily to avail ourselves of that precious Blood. Suppose you have let the Lord Jesus cleanse your cup and have trustedHim to fill it to overflowing, then something comes along--a touch ofenvy or temper. What happens? Your cup becomes dirty and it ceases tooverflow. And if we are constantly being defeated in this way, thenour cup is never overflowing. 

If we are to know continuous Revival, we must learn the way to keepour cups clean. It is never God's will that a Revival should cease, and be known in history as the Revival of this or that year. Whenthat happens it is due to only one thing--sin, just those little sinsthat the devil drops into our cup. But if we will go back to Calvaryand learn afresh the power of the Blood of Jesus to cleanse moment bymoment from the beginnings of sin, then we have learnt the secret ofcups constantly cleansed and constantly overflowing. The moment youare conscious of that touch of envy, criticism, irritability, whatever it is--ask Jesus to cover it with His precious Blood andcleanse it away and you will find the reaction gone, your joy andpeace restored and your cup running over. And the more you trust theBlood of Jesus in this way, the less will you even have thesereactions. But cleansing is only possible when we have first beenbroken before God on the point concerned. Suppose we are irritated bycertain traits in someone. It is not enough just to take ourreactions of irritation to Calvary. We must first be broken, that is, we must yield to God over the whole question and accept that personand his ways as His will for us. Then we are able to take our wrongreaction to Jesus, knowing that His Blood will cleanse away our sin;and when we have been cleansed from sin, let us not keep mourningover it, let us not be occupied with ourselves. But let us look up toour victorious Lord, and praise Him that He is still victorious. 

There is one simple but all-inclusive guide the Word of God gives toregulate our walk with Jesus and to make us to know when sin has comein. Colossians 3:15 says, "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts. "Everything that disturbs the peace of God in our hearts is sin, nomatter how small it is, and no matter how little like sin it may atfirst appear to be. This peace is to "rule" our hearts, or (a moreliteral translation) "be the referee" in our hearts. When the refereeblows his whistle at a football match, the game has to stop, a foulhas been committed. When we lose our peace, God's referee in ourhearts has blown his whistle! Let us stop immediately, ask God toshow us what is wrong, put by faith the sin He shows us under theBlood of Jesus, and then peace will be restored and we shall go onour way with our cups running over. If, however, God does not give usHis peace, it will be because we are not really broken. Perhaps wehave yet to say "sorry" to somebody else as well as to God. Orperhaps we still feel it is the other person's fault. But if we havelost our peace, it is obvious whose fault it is. We do not lose peacewith God over another person's sin, but only over our own. God wantsto show us our reactions, and only when we are willing to be cleansedthere, will we have His peace. Oh, what a simple but searching thingit is to be ruled by the peace of God, none other than the HolySpirit Himself! Former selfish ways, which we never bothered about, are now shown to us and we cannot walk in them without the refereeblowing his whistle. Grumbling, bossiness, carelessness, down to thesmallest thing are all revealed as sins, when we are prepared to letour days be ruled by the peace of God. Many times a day and over thesmallest things we shall have to avail ourselves of the cleansingBlood of Jesus, and we shall find ourselves walking the way ofbrokenness as never before. But Jesus will be manifested in all Hisloveliness and grace in that brokenness. 

Many of us, however, have neglected the referee's whistle so oftenand for so long that we have ceased to hear it. Days follow days andwe feel we have little need of cleansing and no occasion of beingbroken. In that condition we are usually in a worse state than weever imagine. It will need a great hunger for restored fellowshipwith God to possess our hearts before we will be willing to cry toGod to show us where the Blood of Jesus must be applied. He will showus, to begin with, just one thing, and it will be our obedience andbrokenness on that one thing that will be the first step into Revivalfor us. 

[footnote*:Some may be inclined to question whether it is right to callsuch things as self-consciousness, reserve and fear, sins. "Call theminfirmities, disabilities, temperamental weaknesses, if you will, " somehave said, "but not sins. To do so would be to get us into bondage. "The reverse, however, is true. If these things are not sins, then wemust put up with them for the rest of our lives, there is no deliverance. But if these and other things like them are indeed sins, then thereis a Fountain for sin, and we may experience cleansing anddeliverance from them, if we put them immediately under His preciousBlood, the moment we are conscious of them. And they are sins. Theirsource is unbelief and an inverted form of pride, and they havehindered and hidden Him times without number. ]

CHAPTER 3THE WAY OF FELLOWSHIP

When man fell and chose to make himself, rather than God, the centreof his life, the effect was not only to put man out of fellowshipwith God, but also out of fellowship with his fellow man. The storyof man's first quarrel with God in the third chapter of Genesis isclosely followed, in the fourth chapter, by the story of man's firstquarrel with his fellow, Cain's murder of Abel. The Fall is simply, "we have turned every one to his own way. "[footnote1: Is. 53: 6] If Iwant my own way rather than God's, it is quite obvious that I shallwant my own way rather than the other man's. A man does not asserthis independence of God to surrender it to a fellow man, if he canhelp it. But a world in which each man wants his own way cannot butbe a world full of tensions, barriers, suspicions, misunderstandings, clashes and conflicts. 

Now the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross was not only tobring men back into fellowship with God, but also into fellowshipwith their fellow men. Indeed it cannot do one without the other. Asthe spokes get nearer the centre of the wheel, they get nearer to oneanother. But if we have not been brought into vital fellowship withour brother, it is a proof that to that extent we have not beenbrought into vital fellowship with God. The first epistle of John(what a new light Revival sheds on this Scripture!) insists ontesting the depth and reality of a man's fellowship with God by thedepth and reality of his fellowship with his brethren. [footnote2:IJohn 2:9, 3:14-15, 4:20]

Some of us have come to see how utterly connected a man'srelationship to his fellows is with his relationship to God. Everything that comes as a barrier between us and another, be itnever so small, comes as a barrier between us and God. We have foundthat where these barriers are not put right immediately, they getthicker and thicker until we find ourselves shut off from God and ourbrother by what seem to be veritable brick walls. Quite obviously, ifwe allow New Life to come to us, it will have to manifest itself by awalk of oneness with God and our brother, with nothing between. 

Light and Darkness. 

On what basis can we have real fellowship with God and our brother?Here 1 John 1:7 has come afresh to us. "If we walk in the light, asHe is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and theBlood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. " What ismeant by light and darkness is that light reveals, darkness hides. When anything reproves us, shows us up as we really are--that islight. "Whatsoever doth make manifest is light. "[footnote3:Eph. 5: 13]But whenever we do anything or say anything (or don't say anything)to hide what we are or what we've done--that is darkness. 

Now the first effect of sin in our lives is always to make us try andhide what we are. Sin made our first parents hide behind the trees ofthe garden and it has had the same effect on us ever since. Sinalways involves us in being unreal, pretending, duplicity, windowdressing, excusing ourselves and blaming others--and we can do allthat as much by our silence as by saying or doing something. This iswhat the previous verse calls "walking in darkness. " With some of us, the sin in question may be nothing more than self-consciousness(anything with "I" in it is sin) and the hiding, nothing more than anassumed heartiness to cover that self-consciousness, but it iswalking in darkness none the less. 

In contrast to all this in us, verse 5 of this chapter tells us that"God is light, " that is, God is the All-revealing One, who shows upevery man as he really is. And it goes on to say, "In Him is nodarkness at all, " that is, there is absolutely nothing in God whichcan be one with the tiniest bit of darkness or hiding in us. 

Quite obviously, then, it is utterly impossible for us to be walkingin any degree of darkness and have fellowship with God. While we arein that condition of darkness, we cannot have true fellowship withour brother either--for we are not real with him, and no one can havefellowship with an unreal person. A wall of reserve separates him andus. 

The Only Basis for Fellowship. 

The only basis for real fellowship with God and man is to live out inthe open with both. "But if we walk in the light, as He is in thelight, we have fellowship one with another. " To walk in the light isthe opposite of walking in darkness. Spurgeon defines it in one ofhis sermons as "the willingness to know and be known. " As far as Godis concerned, this means that we are willing to know the whole truthabout ourselves, we are open to conviction. We will bend the neck tothe first twinges of conscience. Everything He shows us to be sin, wewill deal with as sin--we will hide or excuse nothing. Such a walk inthe light cannot but discover sin increasingly in our lives, and weshall see things to be sin which we never thought to be such before. For that reason we might shrink from this walk, and be tempted tomake for cover. But the verse goes on with the precious words, "andthe Blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. "Everything that the light of God shows up as sin, we can confess andcarry to the Fountain of Blood and it is gone, gone from God's sightand gone from our hearts. By the power of the precious Blood we canbe made more stainless than the driven snow; and thus continuallyabiding in the light and cleansed by the Blood, we have fellowshipwith God. 

But the fellowship promised us here is not only with God, but "onewith another"; and that involves us in walking in the light with ourbrother too. In any case, we cannot be "in the open" with God and "inthe dark" with him. This means that we must be as willing to know thetruth about ourselves from our brother as to know it from God. Wemust be prepared for him to hold the light to us (and we must bewilling to do the same service for him) and challenge us in loveabout anything he sees in our lives which is not the highest. We mustbe willing not only to know, but to be known by him for what wereally are. That means we are not going to hide our inner selves fromthose with whom we ought to be in fellowship; we are not going towindow dress and put on appearances; nor are we going to whitewashand excuse ourselves. We are going to be honest about ourselves withthem. We are willing to give up our spiritual privacy, pocket ourpride and risk our reputations for the sake of being open andtransparent with our brethren in Christ. It means, too, that we arenot going to cherish any wrong feeling in our hearts about another, but we are first going to claim deliverance from it from God and putit right with the one concerned. As we walk this way, we shall findthat we shall have fellowship with one another at an altogether newlevel, and we shall not love one another less, but infinitely more. 

No Bondage. 

Walking in the light is simply walking with Jesus. Therefore thereneed be no bondage about it. We have not necessarily got to telleverybody everything about ourselves. The fundamental thing is ourattitude of walking in the light, rather than the act. Are we willingto be in the open with our brother--and be so in word when God tellsus to? That is the "armour of light"--true transparency. This maysometimes be humbling, but it will help us to a new reality withChrist, and to a new self-knowledge. We have become so used to thefact that God knows all about us that it does not seem to registerwith us, and we inevitably end by not knowing the truth aboutourselves. But let a man begin to be absolutely honest about himselfwith but one other, as God guides him, and he will come to aknowledge of himself and his sins that he never had before, and hewill begin to see more clearly than ever before where the redemptionof Christ has got to be applied progressively to his life. This isthe reason why James tells us to put ourselves under the disciplineof "confessing our faults one to another. "

In 1 John 1:7, of course, the purpose of "walking in the light" isthat we might "have fellowship one with another. " And what fellowshipit is when we walk this way together! Obviously, love will flow fromone to another, when each is prepared to be known as the repentantsinner he is at the Cross of Jesus. When the barriers are down andthe masks are off, God has a chance of making us really one. Butthere is also the added joy of knowing that in such a fellowship weare "safe. " No fear now that others may be thinking thoughts about usor having reactions toward us, which they are hiding from us. In afellowship which is committed to walk in the light beneath the Cross, we know that if there is any thought about us, it will quickly bebrought into the light, either in brokenness and confession (wherethere has been wrong and unlove), or else as a loving challenge, assomething that we ought to know about ourselves. 

It must not, however, be forgotten that our walk in the light isfirst and foremost with the Lord Jesus. It is with Him first that wemust get things settled and it is His cleansing and victory that mustfirst be obtained. Then when God guides us to open our hearts withothers, we come to them with far more of a testimony than aconfession (except where that is specifically due) and we praise Godtogether. 

Teams of Two for Revival. 

Jesus wants you to begin walking in the light with Him in a new waytoday. Join with one other--your Christian friend, the person youlive with, your wife, your husband. Drop the mask. God has doubtlessconvicted you of one thing more than another that you have got to behonest with them about. Start there. Be a team of two to work forrevival amongst your circle. As others are broken at the Cross theywill be added to your fellowship, as God leads. Get together fromtime to time for fellowship and to share your spiritual experiencewith real openness. In complete oneness pray together for others, andgo out as a team with fresh testimony. God through such a fellowshipwill begin to work wondrously. As He saves and blesses others in thisvital way, they can start to live and work as a fellowship too. Asone billiard ball will move another billiard ball, so one group willset off another group, until the whole of our land is covered withNew Life from the risen Lord Jesus. 

CHAPTER 4THE HIGHWAY OF HOLINESS

One of the things that we must learn if we are to live the victoriousChristian life is its utter simplicity. How complicated we have madeit! Great volumes are written, all sorts of technical phrases areused, we are told the secret lies in this, or that and so on. But tomost of us, it is all so complicated that, although we know it intheory, we are unable to relate what we know to our practical dailyliving. In order to make the simple truths we have been consideringeven clearer, we want in this chapter to cast them all in pictureform. 

The Highway. 

An "over-all" picture of the life of victory, which has come to manyof us is that of the Highway in Isaiah 35: "And an highway shall bethere and a way and it shall be called the way of holiness. " Thepicture is that of a Highway built up from the surrounding morass, the world. Though the Highway is narrow and uphill, it is not beyondany of us to walk it, for "the wayfaring men, though fools, shall noterr therein. " Though there are many dangers if we get off the road, while we keep to the Highway there is safety, for "no lion shall bethere, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon. " Only one kind ofperson is barred from walking there and that is the unclean one. "Theunclean shall not pass over it. " This includes not only the sinnerwho does not know Christ as his Saviour, but the Christian who doesand yet is walking in unconfessed and uncleansed sin. 

The only way on to the Highway is up a small dark, forbiddinghill--the Hill of Calvary. It is the sort of hill we have to climb onour hands and knees--especially our knees. If we are content with ourpresent Christian life, if we do not desire with a desperate hungerto get on to the Highway, we shall never get to our knees and thusnever climb the hill. But if we are dissatisfied, if we are hungry, then we will find ourselves ascending. Don't hurry. Let God make youreally hungry for the Highway; let Him really drive you to your kneesin longing prayer. Mere sightseers won't get very far. "Ye shall findMe when ye shall search for Me with all your heart. "

A Low Door. 

At the top of the hill, guarding the way to the Highway, stands sogaunt and grim ... The Cross. There it stands, the Divider of timeand the Divider of men. At the foot of the Cross is a low door, solow that to get through it one has to stoop and crawl through. It isthe only entrance to the Highway. We must go through it if we wouldgo any further on our way. This door is called the Door of the BrokenOnes. Only the broken can enter the Highway. To be broken means to be"not I, but Christ. " There is in every one of us a proud, stiff-necked "I. " The stiff neck began in the Garden of Eden whenAdam and Eve, who had always bowed their heads in surrender to God'swill, stiffened their necks, struck out for independence and tried tobe "as gods. " All the way through the Bible, God charges His peoplewith the same stiff neck; and it manifests itself in us, too. We arehard and unyielding. We are sensitive and easily hurt. We getirritable, envious and critical. We are resentful and unforgiving. Weare self-indulgent--and how often that can lead to impurity! Everyone of these things, and many more, spring from this proud selfwithin. If it were not there and Christ were in its place, we wouldnot have these reactions. Before we can enter the Highway, God mustbend and break that stiff-necked self, so that Christ reigns in itsstead. To be broken means to have no rights before God and man. Itdoes not mean merely surrendering my rights to Him but ratherrecognising that I haven't any, except to deserve hell. It means justbeing nothing and having nothing that I call my own, neither time, money, possessions nor position. 

In order to break our wills to His, God brings us to the foot of theCross and there shows us what real brokenness is. We see thosewounded Hands and Feet, that Face of Love crowned with thorns and wesee the complete brokenness of the One who said, "Not my will, butThine be done, " as He drank the bitter cup of our sin to its dregs. So the way to be broken is to look on Him and to realise it was oursin which nailed Him there. Then as we see the love and brokenness ofthe God who died in our place, our hearts will become strangelymelted and we will want to be broken for Him and we shall pray, "Oh, to be saved from myself, dear Lord, Oh, to be lost in Thee, Oh, that it might be no more I, But Christ that lives in me. "

And some of us have found that there is no prayer that God is soswift to answer as the prayer that He might break us. 

A Constant Choice. 

But do not let us imagine that we have to be broken only once as wego through the door. Ever after it will be a constant choice beforeus. God brings His pressure to bear on us, but we have to make thechoice. If someone hurts and slights us, we immediately have thechoice of accepting the slight as a means of grace to humble us loweror we can resist it and stiffen our necks again with all thedisturbance of spirit that that is bound to bring. Right the waythrough the day our brokenness will be tested and it is no use ourpretending we are broken before God, if we are not broken in ourattitude to those around us. God nearly always tests us through otherpeople. There are no second causes for the Christian. God's will ismade known in His providence, and His providences are so often otherswith their many demands on us. If you find yourself in a patch ofunbrokenness, the only way is to go afresh to Calvary and see Christbroken for you and you will come away willing to be broken for Him. 

Over the Door of the Broken Ones is sprinkled the precious Blood ofthe Lord Jesus. As we bend to crawl through, the Blood cleanses fromall sin. For not only have we to bend to get through, but only theclean can walk the Highway. Maybe you have never known Jesus as yourSaviour, maybe you have known Him for years, but in either case youare defiled by sin, the sins of pride, envy, resentment, impurity, etc. If you will give them all to Him who bore them on the Cross, Hewill whisper to you again what He once said on the Cross, "It isfinished, " and your heart will be cleansed whiter than snow. 

The Gift of His Fulness. 

So we get on to the Highway. There it stretches before us, a narrowuphill road, bathed in light, leading towards the Heavenly Jerusalem. The embankment on either side slopes away into thick darkness. Infact, the darkness creeps right to the very edges of the Highway, buton the Highway itself all is light. Behind us is the Cross, no longerdark and forbidding, but radiant and glowing, and we no longer seeJesus stretched across its arms, but walking the Highway overflowingwith resurrection life. In His Hands He carries a pitcher with theWater of Life. He comes right up to us and asks us to hold out ourhearts, and just as if we were handing Him a cup, we present to Himour empty hearts. He looks inside--a painful scrutiny--and where Hesees we have allowed His Blood to cleanse them, He fills them withthe Water of Life. So we go on our way rejoicing and praising God andoverflowing with His new life. This is revival. You and I full of theHoly Spirit all the time, loving others and concerned for theirsalvation. No struggling, no tarrying. Just simply giving Him eachsin to cleanse in His precious Blood and accepting from His hands thefree gift of His Fulness, and then allowing Him to do the workthrough us. As we walk along with Him, He is always there continuallyfilling so that our cups continually overflow. 

So the rest of our Christian life simply consists now of walkingalong the Highway, with hearts overflowing, bowing the neck to Hiswill all the time, constantly trusting the Blood to cleanse us andliving in complete oneness with Jesus. There is nothing spectacularabout this life, no emotional experiences to sigh after and wait for. It is just plain day to day living the life the Lord intended us tolive. This is real holiness. 

Off the Highway. 

But we may, and sometimes do, slip off the Highway, for it is narrow. One little step aside and we are off the path and in darkness. It isalways because of a failure in obedience somewhere or a failure to beweak enough to let God do all. Satan is always beside the road, shouting at us, but he cannot touch us. But we can yield to his voiceby an act of will. This is the beginning of sin and slipping awayfrom Jesus. Sometimes we find ourselves stiffening our necks tosomeone, sometimes to God Himself. Sometimes jealousy or resentmentassails us. Immediately we are over the side, for nothing unclean canwalk the Highway. Our cup is dirtied and ceases to overflow and welose our peace with God. If we do not come back to the Highway atonce, we shall go further down the side. We must get back. How? Thefirst thing to do is to ask God to show what caused us to slip off;and He will, though it often takes Him time to make us see. Perhapssomeone annoyed me, and I was irritated. God wants me to see that itwas not the thing that the person did that matters, but my reactionto it. If I had been broken, I would not have been irritated. So, asI look longingly back to the Highway, I see the Lord Jesus again andI see what an ugly thing it is to get irritable and that Jesus diedto save me from being irritable. As I crawl up again to the Highwayon hands and knees, I come again to Him and His Blood for cleansing. Jesus is waiting there to fill my cup to overflowing once again. Hallelujah! No matter where you leave the Highway, you will alwaysfind Him calling you to come back and be broken again, and always theBlood will be there to cleanse and make you clean. This is the greatsecret of the Highway--knowing what to do with sin, when sin has comein. The secret is always to take sin to the Cross, see there itssinfulness, and then put it under the Blood and reckon it gone. 

So the real test all along the Highway will be--are our cups runningover? Have we the peace of God in our hearts? Have we love andconcern for others? These things are the barometer of the Highway. Ifthey are disturbed, then sin has crept in somewhere--self-pity, self-seeking, self-indulgence in thought or deed, sensitiveness, touchiness, self-defence, self-consciousness, shyness, reserve, worry, fear and so on. 

Our walk with Others. 

An important thing about the Highway which has not been mentioned yetis that we do not walk this Highway alone. Others walk it with us. There is, of course, the Lord Jesus. But there are other wayfarers, too, and the rule of the road is that fellowship with them is asimportant as fellowship with Jesus. Indeed, the two are intimatelyconnected. Our relationship with our fellows and our relationshipwith God are so linked that we cannot disturb one without disturbingthe other. Everything that comes between us and another, such asimpatience, resentment or envy, comes between us and God. Thesebarriers are sometimes no more than veils--veils through which we canstill, to some extent, see. But if not removed immediately, theythicken into blankets and then into brick walls, and we are shut offfrom both God and our fellows, shut in to ourselves. It is clear whythese two relationships should be so linked. "God is love, " that islove for others, and the moment we fail in love towards another, weput ourselves out of fellowship with God--for God loves him, even ifwe don't. 

But more than that, the effect of such sins is always to make us"walk in darkness"--that is, to cover it up and hide what we reallyare or what we are really feeling. That is always the meaning of"darkness" in Scripture, for while the light reveals, the darknesshides. The first effect of sin in us is always to make us hide; withthe result that we are pretending, we are wearing a mask, we are notreal with either God or man. And, of course, neither God nor man canfellowship with an unreal person. 

The way back into fellowship with the Lord Jesus will bring us againinto fellowship with our brother, too. All unlove must be recognisedas sin and given to the Lord Jesus for His Blood to cover--and thenit can be put right with our brother also. As we come back to theLord Jesus like this, we shall find His love for our brother fillingour hearts and wanting to express itself in our actions toward himand we shall walk in fellowship together again. 

So this is the Highway life. It is no new astounding doctrine. It isnot something new for us to preach. It is quite unspectacular. It isjust a life to live day by day in whatever circumstances the Lord hasput us. It does not contradict what we may have read or heard aboutthe Christian life. It just puts into simple pictorial language thegreat truths of sanctification. To start to live this life now willmean revival in our lives. To continue to live it will be revivalcontinued. Revival is just you and I walking along the Highway incomplete oneness with the Lord Jesus and with one another, with cupscontinually cleansed and overflowing with the life and love of God. 

CHAPTER 5THE DOVE AND THE LAMB

Victorious living and effective soul-winning service are not theproduct of our better selves and hard endeavours, but are simply thefruit of the Holy Spirit. We are not called upon to produce thefruit, but simply to bear it. It is all the time to be His fruit. Nothing is more important then, than that we should be continuouslyfilled with the Holy Spirit, or to keep to the metaphor, that the"trees of the Lord should be continuously full of sap"--His sap. 

How this may be so for us is graphically illustrated by the record, in the first chapter of John, of how the Holy Spirit came upon theLord Jesus at His baptism. John the Baptist had seen Jesus coming toHim and had said of Him, "Behold, the Lamb of God that beareth thesin of the world. " Then as he baptised him, he saw the heavens openedand the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon Him. 

The Humility of God. 

What a suggestive picture we have here--the Dove descending upon theLamb and resting herself upon Him! The Lamb and the Dove are surelythe gentlest of all God's creatures. The Lamb speaks of meekness andsubmissiveness and the Dove speaks of peace (what more peaceful soundthan the cooing of a dove on a summer day). Surely this shows us thatthe heart of Deity is humility. When the eternal God chose to revealHimself in His Son, He gave Him the name of the Lamb; and when it wasnecessary for the Holy Spirit to come into the world, He was revealedunder the emblem of the Dove. Is it not obvious, then, that thereason why we have to be humble in order to walk with God is notmerely because God is so big and we so little, that humility befitssuch little creatures--but because God is so humble?

The main lesson of this incident is that the Holy Spirit, as theDove, could only come upon and remain upon the Lord Jesus because Hewas the Lamb. Had the Lord Jesus had any other disposition than thatof the Lamb--humility, submissiveness and self-surrender--the Dovecould never have rested on Him. Being herself so gentle, she wouldhave been frightened away had not Jesus been meek and lowly in heart. 

Here, then, we have pictured for us the condition upon which the sameHoly Spirit can come upon us and abide upon us. The Dove can onlyabide upon us as we are willing to be as the Lamb. How impossiblethat He should rest upon us while self is unbroken! Themanifestations of the unbroken self are the direct opposite of thegentleness of the Dove. Read again in Galatians 5 the ninefold fruitof the Spirit ("love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control") with which the Dovelongs to fill us! Then contrast it with the ugly works of the flesh(the N. T. Name for the unbroken self) in the same chapter. It is thecontrast of the snarling wolf with the gentle dove!

The Disposition of the Lamb. 

How clear, then, that the Holy Spirit will only come upon us andremain upon us as we are willing to be as the Lamb on each point onwhich He will convict us! And nothing is so searching and humbling asto look at the Lamb on His way to Calvary for us and to be shown inhow many points we have been unwilling to take the position of thelamb for Him. 

Look at Him for a moment as the Lamb. He was the simple Lamb. A lambis the simplest of God's creatures. It has no schemes or plans forhelping itself--it exists in helplessness and simplicity. Jesus madeHimself as nothing for us, and became the simple Lamb. He had nostrength of His own or wisdom of His own, no schemes to get Himselfout of difficulties, just simple dependence on the Father all thetime. "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth theFather do. " But we--how complicated we are! What schemes we have hadof helping ourselves and of getting ourselves out of difficulties. What efforts of our own we have resorted to, to live the Christianlife and to do God's works, as if we were something and could dosomething. The Dove had to take His flight (at least as far as theconscious blessing of His Presence was concerned) because we were notwilling to be simple lambs. 

Willing to be Shorn. 

Then He was the shorn Lamb, willing to be shorn of His rights, Hisreputation, and every human liberty that was due to Him, just as alamb is shorn of its wool. He never resisted: A lamb never does. WhenHe was reviled for our sakes, He reviled not again. When He suffered, He threatened not. He never said, "You cannot treat me like that. Don't you know that I am the Son of God?" But we--ah we, on how manyoccasions have we been unwilling to be shorn of that which was ourright. We were not willing for His sake to lose what was our own. Weinsisted, too, that we should be treated with the respect due to ourposition. We resisted, and we fought. The Dove had to take His flightfrom us for we were not willing to be shorn lambs, and we were leftwithout peace, hard and unloving. 

He Answered Nothing. 

Then further, He was the silent Lamb. "As a sheep before her shearersis dumb, so He openeth not His mouth. " Facing the calumnies of men, we read, "He answered nothing. " He never defended Himself, norexplained Himself. But we have been anything but silent when othershave said unkind or untrue things about us. Our voices have been loudin self-defence and self-vindication, and there has been anger in ourvoices. We have excused ourselves, when we should have admittedfrankly our wrong. On every such occasion the Dove had to take Hisflight, and withdraw His peace and blessing from our hearts, becausewe were not willing to be the silent lamb. 

No Grudges. 

He was also the spotless Lamb. Not only did nothing escape His lips, but there was nothing in His heart but love for those who had sentHim to the Cross. There was no resentment towards them, no grudges, no bitterness. Even as they were putting the nails through His hands, He was murmuring, "I forgive you, " and He asked His Father to forgivethem too. He was willing to suffer it in meekness for us. But whatresentment and bitterness have not we had in our hearts--toward thisone and that one, and over so much less than what they did to Jesus. Each reaction left a stain on our hearts, and the Dove had to flyaway because we were not willing to bear it and forgive it for Jesus'sake. 

Return, O Dove!

These, then, are the acts and attitudes which drive the Holy Spiritfrom our lives, as far as present blessing is concerned, and they areall sin. Sin is the only thing that hinders the revival of HisChurch. The question of all questions for us just now is, "How canthe Dove return to our lives with His peace and power?" The answer isagain just simply, "The Lamb of God, " for He is not only the simpleLamb and the shorn Lamb and the silent Lamb and the spotless Lamb, but above everything else He is the substitute Lamb. 

To the Jew the lamb that was offered to God was always a substitutelamb. Its meekness and submissiveness was only incidental to its mainwork, that of being slain for his sin and of its blood beingsprinkled on the altar to atone for it. The humility of the LordJesus in becoming our Lamb was necessary only that He might become onthe Cross our Substitute, our scapegoat, carrying our sins in His ownBody on the Tree, so that there might be forgiveness for our sins andcleansing from all their stains, when we repent of them. But inasmuchas there is no past or future with God, but all is present andtimeless, there is a sense in which the suffering of the Lord Jesusfor the sins of which we have not repented is present too. What avision it is when we see these sins wounding and hurting Him now! Maythis solemn thought break our proud hearts in repentance! For it isonly when we have seen these sins of ours in the heart of Jesus, sothat we are broken and willing to repent of them and put them right, that the Blood of the Lamb cleanses us from them and the Dove returnswith peace and blessing to our hearts. 

He humbled Himself to the manger, And even to Calvary's tree;But I am so proud and unwilling, His humble disciple to be. 

He yielded His will to the Father, And chose to abide in the Light;But I prefer wrestling to resting, And try by myself to do right. 

Lord break me, then cleanse me and fill me And keep me abiding in Thee;That fellowship may be unbroken, And Thy Name be hallowed in me. 

A saintly African Christian told a congregation once that, as he wasclimbing the hill to the meeting, he heard steps behind him. Heturned and saw a man carrying a very heavy load up the hill on hisback. He was full of sympathy for him and spoke to him. Then henoticed that His hands were scarred, and he realised that it wasJesus. He said to Him, "Lord, are you carrying the world's sins upthe hill?" "No, " said the Lord Jesus, "not the world's sin, justyours!" As that African simply told the vision God had just givenhim, the people's hearts and his heart were broken as they saw theirsins at the Cross. Our hearts need to be broken too, and only whenthey are, shall we be willing for the confessions, the apologies, thereconciliations and the restitutions, that are involved in a truerepentance of sin. Then, when we have been willing to humbleourselves, as the Lord humbled Himself, the Dove will return to us. 

Return, O heavenly Dove, return, Sweet messenger of rest!I hate the sins that made Thee mourn, And drove Thee from my breast. 

Ruled by the Dove. 

One last word. The Dove is the emblem of peace, which suggests thatif the Blood of Jesus has cleansed us and we are walking with theLamb in humility, the sign of the Spirit's presence and fulness willbe peace. This is indeed to be the test of our walk all the wayalong. "Let the peace of God rule (or arbitrate) in your hearts"(Col. 3:15). If the Dove ceases to sing in our hearts at any time, if our peace is broken, then it can only be because of sin. In somematter we have departed from the humility of the Lamb. We must askGod to show us what it is, and be quick to repent of it and bring thesin to the Cross. Then the Dove will be once again in His rightfulplace in our hearts and peace with God will be ours. In this way weshall know that continuous abiding of the Spirit's presence, which isopen even to fallen men through the immediate and constantapplication of the precious Blood of Jesus. 

Shall we not begin from today to allow our lives to be ruled by theHeavenly Dove, the peace of God, and allow Him to be the arbiter allthe day through? We shall find ourselves walking in a path ofconstant conviction and much humbling, but in this way we shall comeinto real conformity with the Lamb of God, and we shall know the onlyvictory that is worth anything, the conquest of self. 

CHAPTER 6REVIVAL IN THE HOME

Thousands of years ago, in the most beautiful Garden the world hasever known, lived a man and a woman. Formed in the likeness of theirCreator, they lived solely to reveal Him to His creation and to eachother and thus to glorify Him every moment of the day. Humbly theyaccepted the position of a creature with the Creator--that ofcomplete submission and yieldedness to His will. Because they alwayssubmitted their wills to His, because they lived for Him and not forthemselves, they were also completely submitted to each other. Thusin that first home in that beautiful garden, there was absoluteharmony, peace, love and oneness not only with God, but with eachother. 

Then one day, the harmony was shattered, for the serpent stole intothat God-centred home, and with him, sin. And now, because they hadlost their peace and fellowship with God, they lost it with eachother. No longer did they live for God--they each lived forthemselves. They were each their own gods now, and because they nolonger lived for God, they no longer lived for each other. Instead ofpeace, harmony, love and oneness--there was now discord and hate--inother words, SIN!

Revival begins in the Home. 

It was into the home that sin first came. It is in the home that wesin more than perhaps anywhere else, and it is to the home thatrevival first needs to come. Revival is desperately needed in thechurch--in the country--in the world, but a revived church withunrevived homes would be sheer hypocrisy. It is the hardest place, the most costly, but the most necessary place to begin. 

But before we go on, let us remind ourselves again of what revivalreally is. It simply means new life, in hearts where the spirituallife has ebbed--but not a new life of self-effort or self-initiatedactivity. It is not man's life, but God's life, the life of Jesusfilling us and flowing through us. That Life is manifested infellowship and oneness with those with whom we live--nothing betweenus and God, and nothing between us and others. The home is the placebefore all others where this should be experienced. 

But how different is the experience of so many of us professingChristians in our homes--little irritations, frayed tempers, selfishness and resentments; and even where there is nothing verydefinitely wrong between us, just not that complete oneness andfellowship that ought to characterise Christians living together. Allthe things that come between us and others, come between us and Godand spoil our fellowship with Him, so that our hearts are notoverflowing with the Divine Life. 

What is wrong with our Homes?

Now what at bottom is wrong with our homes? When we talk about homes, we mean the relationship which exists between a husband and wife, aparent and child, a brother and sister, or between any others who, through various circumstances are compelled to live together. 

The first thing that is wrong with so many families is that they arenot really open with one another. We live so largely behind drawnblinds. The others do not know us for what we really are, and we donot intend that they should. Even those living in the most intimaterelationships with us do not know what goes on inside--ourdifficulties, battles, failures, nor what the Lord Jesus has tocleanse us from so frequently. This lack of transparency and opennessis ever the result of sin. The first effect of the first sin was tomake Adam and Eve hide from God behind the trees of the Garden. Theywho had been so transparent with God and with one another were thenhiding from God, because of sin; and if they hid from God you can bequite sure that they soon began to hide from one another. There werereactions and thoughts in Adam's heart that Eve was never allowed toknow and there were like things hidden in Eve's heart too. And so ithas been ever since. Having something to hide from God, we hide it, too, from one another. Behind that wall of reserve, which acts like amask, we cover our real selves. Sometimes we hide in the mostextraordinary way behind an assumed jocular manner. We are afraid tobe serious because we do not want others to get too close and see usas we really are, and so we keep up a game of bluff. We are not realwith one another, and no one can have fellowship with an unrealperson, and so oneness and close fellowship are impossible in thehome. This is what the Scripture calls "walking in darkness"--for thedarkness is anything which hides. 

The Failure to Love. 

The second thing that is wrong with our homes is our failure reallyto love one another. "Well, " says somebody, "that could never be saidof our home, for no one could love one another more than my husbandand I love each other!" But wait a minute! It depends on what youmean by love. Love is not just a sentimental feeling, nor even strongpassion. The famous passage in 1 Corinthians 13 tells us what reallove is, and if we test ourselves by it, we may find that after allwe are hardly loving one another at all, and our behaviour is all inthe opposite direction--and the opposite of love is hate! Let us lookat some of the things that that passage tells us about love. 

"Love is long suffering (patient) and is kind. "

"Love vaunteth not itself (does not boast) is not puffed up (is notconceited). "

"Love does not behave itself unseemly (is not rude) seeketh not herown (is not selfish), is not easily provoked (does not getirritated), thinketh no evil (does not entertain unkind thoughts ofanother). "

How do we stand up to those tests in our homes? So often we act inthe very opposite way. 

We are often impatient with one another and even unkind in the way weanswer back or react. 

How much envy, too, there can be in a home. A husband and wife canenvy the other their gifts, even their spiritual progress. Parentsmay be envious of their children, and how often is there not bitterenvy between brothers and sisters. 

Also "not behaving unseemly, " that is, courtesy, what about that?Courtesy is just love in little things, but it is in the littlethings that we trip up. We think we can "let up" at home. 

How "puffed up, " that is, conceited, we so often are! Conceit comesout in all sorts of ways. We think we know best, we want our way andwe nag or boss the other one; and nagging or bossing leads on to thetendency to despise the other one. Our very attitude of superioritysets us up above them. Then, when at the bottom of our hearts wedespise someone, we blame them for everything--and yet we think welove. 

Then what about "seeking not our own, " that is, not being selfish?Many times a day we put our wishes and interests before those of theother one. 

How "easily provoked" we are! How quick to be irritated by somethingin the other. How often we allow the unkind thought, the resentfulfeeling over something the other has done or left undone! Yet weprofess there are no failures in love in our homes. These thingshappen every day and we think nothing of them. They are all of themthe opposite of love, and the opposite of love is hate. Impatience ishate, envy is hate, conceit and self-will are hate, and so areselfishness, irritability and resentment! And hate is SIN. "He thatsaith he is in the light and hateth his brother, is in the darknesseven until now. " What tensions, barriers and discord it all causes, and fellowship with both God and the other is made impossible. 

The Only Way Out. 

Now the question is, do I want new life, revival, in my home? I havegot to challenge my heart about this. Am I prepared to continue inthis state or am I really hungry for new life, His life, in my home?For not unless I am really hungry will I be willing to take thenecessary steps. The first step I must take is to call sin, sin (mysin, not the other person's) and go with it to the Cross, and trustthe Lord Jesus there and then to cleanse me from it. 

As we bow the neck at the Cross, His self-forgetful love for theothers, His longsuffering and forbearance flow into our hearts. Theprecious Blood cleanses us from the unlove and ill will and the HolySpirit fills us with the very nature of Jesus. 1 Corinthians 13 isnothing less than the nature of Jesus, and it is all gift to us, forHis nature is ours, if He is ours. This blessed process can happenevery single time the beginnings of sin and unlove creep in, for thecleansing fountain of Blood is available to us all the time. 

All this will commit us very definitely to walking the Way of theCross in our homes. Again and again we will see places where we mustyield up our rights, as Jesus yielded up His for us. We shall have tosee that the thing in us that reacts so sharply to another'sselfishness and pride, is simply our own selfishness and pride, whichwe are unwilling to sacrifice. We shall have to accept another's waysand doings as God's will for us and meekly bend the neck to all God'sprovidences. That does not mean that we must accept another'sselfishness as God's will for them--far from it--but only as God'swill for us. As far as the other is concerned, God will probably wantto use us, if we are broken, to help him see his need. Certainly, ifwe are a parent we shall often need to correct our child withfirmness. But none of this is to be from selfish motives, but onlyout of love for the other and a longing for their good. Our ownconvenience and rights must all the time be yielded. Only so will thelove of the Lord Jesus be able to fill us and express itself throughus. 

When we have been broken at Calvary, we must be willing to put thingsright with the others--sometimes even with the children. This is, sooften, the test of our brokenness. Brokenness is the opposite ofhardness. Hardness says, "It's your fault!" Brokenness, however, says, "It's my fault!" What a different atmosphere will begin toprevail in our homes when they hear us say that. Let us remember thatat the Cross there is only room for one at a time. We cannot say, "Iwas wrong, but you were wrong too. You must come as well!" No, youmust go alone, saying, "I'm wrong. " God will work in the other morethrough your brokenness than through anything else you can do or say. We may, however, have to wait--perhaps a long time. But that shouldonly give us to feel more with God, for, as someone has said, "He toohas had to wait a long time since His great attempt to put thingsright with man nineteen hundred years ago, although there was nowrong on His side. " But God will surely answer our prayer and bringthe other to Calvary too. There we shall be one; there the middlewall of partition between us will be broken down; there we shall beable to walk in the light, in true transparency, with Jesus and withone another, loving each other with a pure heart fervently. Sin isalmost the only thing we have in common with everyone else, and so atthe feet of Jesus where sin is cleansed is the only place where wecan be one. Real oneness conjures up for us the picture of two ormore sinners together at Calvary. 

CHAPTER 7THE MOTE AND THE BEAM

That friend of ours has got something in his eye! Though it is onlysomething tiny--what Jesus called a mote--how painful it is and howhelpless he is until it is removed! It is surely our part as a friendto do all we can to remove it, and how grateful he is to us when wehave succeeded in doing so. We should be equally grateful to him, ifhe did the same service for us. 

In the light of that, it seems clear that the real point of thewell-known passage in Matthew 7:3-5 about the beam and the mote isnot the forbidding of our trying to remove the fault in the otherperson, but rather the reverse. It is the injunction that at allcosts we should do this service for one another. True, its firstemphasis seems to be a condemnation of censoriousness, but when thecensoriousness in us is removed, the passage ends by saying, "Thenshalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother's eye. "According to the New Testament, we are meant to care so much for theother man, that we are willing to do all we can to remove from hiseye the mote which is marring his vision and hindering his blessing. We are told to "admonish one another" and "exhort one another" and to"wash one another's feet" and "to provoke one another to love andgood works. " The love of Jesus poured out in us will make us want tohelp our brother in this way. 

What blessing may not come to many others through our willingnesshumbly to challenge one another, as led by God. A humble Swiss, namedNicholas of Basle, one of the Society of the "Friends of God, "crossed the mountains to Strassbourg and entered the Church of Dr. Tauler, the popular preacher of that city. Said Nicholas, "Dr. Tauler, before you can do your greatest work for God, the world andthis city, you must die--die to yourself, your gifts, yourpopularity, and even your own goodness, and when you have learned thefull meaning of the Cross, you will have a new power with God andman. " That humble challenge from an obscure Christian changed Dr. Tauler's life, and he did indeed learn to die, and became one of thegreat factors to prepare the way for Luther and the Reformation. Inthis passage the Lord Jesus tells us how we may do this service forone another. 

What is the Beam?

First, however, the Lord Jesus tells us that it is only too possibleto try to take the tiny mote, a tiny speck of sawdust, out of theother's eye when there is a beam, a great length of timber, in ours. When that is the case, we haven't a chance of casting out the mote inthe other, because we cannot see straight ourselves, and in any caseit is sheer hypocrisy to attempt to do so. 

Now we all know what Jesus meant by the mote in the other person'seye. It is some fault which we fancy we can discern in him; it may bean act he has done against us, or some attitude he adopts towards us. But what did the Lord Jesus mean by the beam in our eye? I suggestthat the beam in our eye is simply our unloving reaction to the otherman's mote. Without doubt there is a wrong in the other person. Butour reaction to that wrong is wrong too! The mote in him has provokedin us resentment, or coldness, or criticism, or bitterness, or evilspeaking, or ill will--all of them variants of the basic ill, unlove. And that, says the Lord Jesus, is far, far worse than the tiny wrong(sometimes quite unconscious) that provoked it. A mote means in theGreek a little splinter, whereas a beam means a rafter. And the LordJesus means by this comparison to tell us that our unloving reactionto the other's wrong is what a great rafter is to a little splinter!Every time we point one of our fingers at another and say, "It's yourfault, " three of our fingers are pointing back at us. God have mercyon us for the many times when it has been so with us and when in ourhypocrisy we have tried to deal with the person's fault, when God sawthere was this thing far worse in our own hearts. 

But let us not think that a beam is of necessity some violentreaction on our part. The first beginning of a resentment is a beam, as is also the first flicker of an unkind thought, or the firstsuggestion of unloving criticism. Where that is so, it only distortsour vision and we shall never see our brother as he really is, beloved of God. If we speak to our brother with that in our hearts, it will only provoke him to adopt the same hard attitude to us, forit is a law of human relationships that "with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. "

Take it to Calvary. 

No! "First cast out the beam out of thine own eye. " That is the firstthing we must do. We must recognise our unloving reaction to him assin. On our knees we must go with it to Calvary and see Jesus thereand get a glimpse of what that sin cost Him. At His Feet we mustrepent of it and be broken afresh and trust the Lord Jesus to cleanseit away in His precious Blood and fill us with His love for thatone--and He will, and does, if we will claim His promise. Then weshall probably need to go to the other in the attitude of therepentant one, tell him of the sin that has been in our heart andwhat the Blood has effected there and ask him to forgive us too. Veryoften bystanders will tell us, and sometimes our own hearts, that thesin we are confessing is not nearly so bad as the other's wrong, which he is not yet confessing. But we have been to Calvary, indeedwe are learning to live under the shadow of Calvary, and we have seenour sin there and we can no longer compare our sin with another's. But as we take these simple steps of repentance, then we see clearlyto cast out the mote out of the other's eye, for the beam in our eyehas gone. In that moment God will pour light in on us as to theother's need, that neither he nor we ever had before. We may see thenthat the mote we were so conscious of before, is virtuallynon-existent--it was but the projection of something that was in us. On the other hand, we may have revealed to us hidden underlyingthings, of which he himself was hardly conscious. Then as God leadsus, we must lovingly and humbly challenge him, so that he may seethem too, and bring them to the Fountain for sin and finddeliverance. He will be more likely than ever to let us do it--indeedif he is a humble man, he will be grateful to us, for he will knownow that there is no selfish motive in our heart, but only love andconcern for him. 

When God is leading us to challenge another, let not fear hold usback. Let us not argue or press our point. Let us just say what Godhas told us to and leave it there. It is God's work, not ours, tocause the other to see it. It takes time to be willing to bend "theproud stiff-necked I. " When we in turn are challenged, let us notdefend ourselves and explain ourselves. Let us take it in silence, thanking the other; and then go to God about it and ask Him. If hewas right, let us be humble enough to go and tell him, and praise Godtogether. There is no doubt that we need each other desperately. There are blind spots in all our lives that we shall never see, unless we are prepared for another to be God's channel to us. 

CHAPTER 8ARE YOU WILLING TO BE A SERVANT?

Nothing is clearer from the New Testament than that the Lord Jesusexpects us to take the low position of servants. This is not just anextra obligation, which we may or may not assume as we please. It isthe very heart of that new relationship which the disciple is to takeup to God and to his fellows if he is to know fellowship with Christand any degree of holiness in his life. When we understand thehumbling and self-emptying that is involved in really being aservant, it becomes evident that only those who are prepared to livequite definitely under the shadow of Calvary, ever contemplating thehumility and brokenness of the Lord Jesus for us, will be willing forthat position. 

As we approach this subject and its personal application in detail toour lives, there are three preliminary things which need to be saidto prepare us to understand the low and humbling position which Hewants us to take. 

In the Old Testament two sorts of servants are mentioned. There arethe hired servants, who have wages paid to them and have certainrights. Then there are the bond-servants, or slaves, who have norights, who receive no wages and who have no appeal. The Hebrews wereforbidden ever to make bond-servants of their own race. Only of theGentiles were they permitted to take such slaves. When, however, wecome to the New Testament, the word in the Greek for the servant ofthe Lord Jesus Christ is not "hired servant" but "bond-servant, " bywhich is meant to be shown that our position is one where we have norights and no appeal, where we are the absolute property of ourMaster, to be treated and disposed of just as He wishes. 

Further, we shall see more clearly still what our position is to bewhen we understand that we are to be the bond-servants of One who wasHimself willing to be a bond-servant. Nothing shows better theamazing humility of the Lord Jesus, whose servants we are to be, thanthat "though He was in the form of God, He counted it not a prize tobe on an equality with God, but emptied Himself and took upon Him theform of a bondservant" (Phil. 2:6, 7)--without rights, willing to betreated as the will of the Father and the malice of men might decree, if only He might thereby serve men and bring them back to God. Andyou and I are to be the bond-servants of Him who was and always is abondservant, whose disposition is ever that of humility and whoseactivity is ever that of humbling Himself to serve His creatures. Howutterly low, then, is our true position! How this shows us what itmeans to be ruled by the Lord Jesus!

That leads us to something further. Our servanthood to the Lord Jesusis to express itself in our servanthood to our fellows. Says Paul, "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselvesyour bond-servants for Jesus' sake. " The low position we take towardthe Lord Jesus is judged by Him by the low position we take in ourrelationship with our fellows. An unwillingness to serve others incostly, humbling ways He takes to be an unwillingness to serve Him, and we thus put ourselves out of fellowship with Him. 

We are now in a position to apply all this much more personally toour lives. God spoke to me some time ago through Luke 17:7-1O. "Butwhich of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will sayunto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit downto meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I maysup, and gird thyself and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken;and afterwards thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servantbecause he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. Solikewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which arecommanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done thatwhich was our duty to do. "

I see here five marks of the bond-servant. First of all, he must bewilling to have one thing on top of another put upon him, without anyconsideration being given him. On top of a hard day in the field theservant in the parable had immediately to prepare his master's meal, and on top of that he had to wait at table--and all that before hehad had any food himself. He just went and did it, expecting nothingelse. How unwilling we are for this! How quickly there are murmuringsand bitterness in our hearts when that sort of thing is expected ofus. But the moment we start murmuring, we are acting as if we hadrights, and a bond-servant hasn't any!

Secondly, in doing this he must be willing not to be thanked for it. How often we serve others, but what selfpity we have in our heartsand how bitterly we complain that they take it as a matter of courseand do not thank us for it. But a bond-servant must be willing forthat. Hired servants may expect something, but not bond-servants. 

And, thirdly, having done all this, he must not charge the other withselfishness. As I read the passage, I could not but feel that themaster was rather selfish and inconsiderate. But there is no suchcharge from the bond-servant. He exists to serve the interests of hismaster and the selfishness or otherwise of his master does not comeinto it with him. But we? We can perhaps allow ourselves to be "putupon" by others, and are willing perhaps not to be thanked for whatwe do, but how we charge the other in our minds with selfishness! Butthat is not the place of a bond-servant. He is to find in theselfishness of others but a further opportunity to identify himselfafresh with His Lord as the servant of all. 

But there is a fourth step still to which we must go. Having done allthat, there is no ground for pride or self-congratulation, but wemust confess that we are unprofitable servants, that is, that we areof no real use to God or man in ourselves. We must confess again andagain that "in us, that is in our flesh, there dwelleth no goodthing, " that, if we have acted thus, it is no thanks to us, whosehearts are naturally proud and stubborn, but only to the Lord Jesus, who dwells in us and who has made us willing. 

The bottom of self is quite knocked out by the fifth and laststep--the admission that doing and bearing what we have in the way ofmeekness and humility, we have not done one stitch more than it wasour duty to do. God made man in the first place simply that he mightbe God's bond-servant. Man's sin has simply consisted in his refusalto be God's bond-servant. His restoration can only be, then, arestoration to the position of a bond-servant. A man, then, has notdone anything specially meritorious when he has consented to takethat position, for he was created and redeemed for that very thing. 

This, then, is the Way of the Cross. It is the way that God's lowlyBond-servant first trod for us, and should not we, the bond-servantsof that Bond-servant, tread it still? Does it seem hard andforbidding, this way down? Be assured, it is the only way up. It wasthe way by which the Lord Jesus reached the Throne, and it is the wayby which we too reach the place of spiritual power, authority andfruitfulness. Those who tread this path are radiant, happy souls, overflowing with the life of their Lord. They have found "he thathumbleth himself shall be exalted" to be true for them as for theirLord. Where before humility was an unwelcome intruder to be put upwith only on occasions, she has now become the spouse of their souls, to whom they have wedded themselves for ever. If darkness and unrestenter their souls it is only because somewhere on some point theyhave been unwilling to walk with her in the paths of meekness andbrokenness. But she is ever ready to welcome them back into hercompany, as they seek her face in repentance. 

That brings us to the all-important matter of repentance. We shallnot enter into more abundant life merely by resolving that we shallbe humbler in the future. There are attitudes and actions which havealready taken place and are still being persisted in (if only by ourunwillingness to apologise for them) that must first be repented of. The Lord Jesus did not take upon Him the form of a bond-servantmerely to give us an example, but that He might die for these verysins upon the cross, and open a fountain in His precious Blood wherethey can all be washed away. But that Blood cannot be applied to thesins of our proud heart until we have been broken in repentance as towhat has already happened and as to what we already are. This willmean allowing the light of God to go through every part of our heartsand into every one of our relationships. It will mean that we shallhave to see that the sins of pride, which God will show us, made itnecessary for Jesus to come from heaven and die on the Cross thatthey might be forgiven. It will mean not only asking Him to forgiveus but asking others too. And that will be humbling indeed. But as wecrawl through the door of the broken ones we shall emerge into thelight and glory of the highway of holiness and humility. 

CHAPTER 9THE POWER OF THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB

The message and challenge of Revival, which is coming to many of usthese days is searching in its utter simplicity. It is simply thatthere is only one thing in the world that can hinder the Christian'swalking in victorious fellowship with God and his being filled withthe Holy Spirit--and that is sin in one form or another. There isonly one thing in the world that can cleanse him from sin with allthat that means of liberty and victory--and that is the power of theBlood of the Lord Jesus. It is, however, most important for us thatwe should see what it is that gives the Blood of Christ its mightypower with God on behalf of men, for then we shall understand theconditions on which its full power may be experienced in our lives. 

How many achievements and how many blessings for men the Scriptureascribes to the power of the Blood of the Lord Jesus! By the power ofHis Blood peace is made between man and God. [footnote 1: 1 Col. 1:20]By its power there is forgiveness of sins and eternal life for allwho put their faith in the Lord Jesus. [footnote 2:Col. 1:14; John6:54] By the power of His Blood Satan is overcome. [footnote 3: Rev. 12:11] By its power there is continual cleansing from all sin forus. [footnote 4:1 John 1:7] By the power of His Blood we may be setfree from the tyranny of an evil conscience to serve the livingGod. [footnote 5:Heb. 9:14] By its infinite power with God the mostunworthy have liberty to enter the Holy of Holies of God's presenceand live there all the day. [footnote 6:Heb. 10:19] We may well askwhat gives the Blood its power!

To that question we need to link this other question--how may weexperience its full power in our lives? Too often that precious Blooddoes not have its cleansing, peace-giving, life-giving, sin-destroying power in our hearts, and too often we do not findourselves in God's presence and fellowship all the day. 

Whence its Power?

The answer to the first question is suggested by the phrase in thebook of Revelation which describes the Blood of Christ by the tenderexpression, "the Blood of the Lamb. "[footnote 7: Rev. 7:14] Not theBlood of the Warrior, but the Blood of the Lamb! In other words thatwhich gives the precious Blood its power with God for men is thelamb-like disposition of the One who shed it and of which it is thesupreme expression. The title "the Lamb" so frequently given to theLord Jesus in Scripture is first of all descriptive of His work--thatof being a sacrifice for our sin. When a sinning Israelite wanted toget right with God, it was the blood of a lamb (sometimes that ofgoat) which had to be shed and sprinkled on the altar. Jesus is theDivine fulfilment of all those lambs that men offered--the Lamb ofGod that taketh away the sin of the world. [Footnoe 8:John 1:29] Butthe title the Lamb has a deeper meaning. It describes His character. He is the Lamb in that He is meek and lowly in heart, [footnote9:Matt. 11:29] gentle and unresisting, and all the time surrenderingHis own will to the Father's[footnote 10:John 6:38] for the blessingand saving of men. Any one but the Lamb would have resented andresisted the treatment men gave Him. But He, in obedience to theFather[footnote 11:Phil. 2:8] and out of love for us, did neither. Men did what they liked to Him and for our sakes He yielded all thetime. When He was reviled, He reviled not again. When He suffered, Hethreatened not. No standing up for His rights, no hitting back, noresentment, no complaining! How different from us! When the Father'swill and the malice of men pointed to dark Calvary, the Lamb meeklybowed His head in willingness for that too. It was as the Lamb thatIsaiah saw Him, when he prophesied, "He is brought as a Lamb to theslaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openethnot His mouth. "[footnote 12:Is. 53:7] The scourging, the scoffing, the spitting, the hair plucked off from His cheeks, the weary lastmarch up the Hill, the nailing and the lifting up, the piercing ofHis side and the flowing of His Blood--none of these things wouldever have been, had He not been the Lamb. And all that to pay theprice of my sin! So we see He is not merely the Lamb because He diedon the Cross, but He died upon the Cross because He is the Lamb. 

Let us ever see this disposition in the Blood. Let every mention ofthe Blood call to mind the deep humility and self-surrender of theLamb, for it is this disposition that gives the Blood its wonderfulpower with God. Hebrews 9:14 for ever links the Blood of Christ withHis self-offering to God, "how much more shall the Blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God ... "And it is this fact that bestows upon it its power with God formen. For this disposition has ever been of supreme value to God. Humility, lamb likeness, the surrender of our wills to God are whatHe looks for supremely from man. It was to manifest all this that Godever created the first man. It was his refusal to walk this path thatconstituted his first sin (and it has been the heart of sin eversince). It was to bring this disposition back to earth that Jesuscame. It was simply because the Father saw this in Him that He couldsay, "My Son, in Whom I am well pleased. " It was because the sheddingof His Blood so supremely expressed this disposition that it is soutterly precious to God and so all-availing for man and his sin. 

The Second Question. 

We come now to the second question--how can we experience its fullpower in our lives? Our hearts surely tell us the answer, as we lookon the Lamb, bowing His Head for us on Calvary--only by being willingto have the same disposition that ruled Him and by bending our necksin brokenness as He bowed His. Just as it is the disposition of theLamb that bestows upon the Blood its power, so it is only as we arewilling to be partakers of the same disposition of the Lamb, that weshall know its full power in our lives. And we may be partakers ofHis disposition, [footnote13: Phil. 2:5; 1 Cor. 2:16] for it has beenmade transferable to us by His death. All the fruits of the HolySpirit, mentioned in Galatians 5--love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control--what are theybut the expressions of the lamb-like nature of the Lord Jesus, andthe Holy Spirit wants to fill us with them. Let us never forget thatthe Lord Jesus, though exalted to the throne of God, is still theLamb (the book of Revelation tells us that) and He wants to reproduceHimself in us. 

Are We Willing?

But are we willing for this? There is a hard unyielding self, whichstands up for itself and resists others, that will have to be broken, if we are to be willing for the disposition of the Lamb, and if theprecious Blood is to reach us in cleansing power. We may pray long tobe cleansed from some sin and for peace to be restored to our hearts, but unless we are willing to be broken on the point in question andbe made a partaker of the Lamb's humility there, nothing will happen. Every sin we ever commit is the result of the hard unbroken selftaking up some attitude of pride, and we shall not find peace throughthe Blood until we are willing to see the source of each sin andreverse the wrong attitude that caused it by a specific repentance, which will always be humbling. This means that we have not merely totry and make ourselves feel the humility of Jesus. We have only towalk in the light and be willing for God to reveal any sin that maybe in our lives, and we shall find ourselves asked by the Lord toperform all sorts of costly acts of repentance and surrender, oftenover what we term small and trivial matters. But their importance canbe gauged by what it costs our pride to put them right. He may showus a confession or apology that has to be made to someone or an actof restitution that has to be done. [footnote14:Matt. 5:23-24] He mayshow us that we must climb down over something and yield up ourfancied rights in it (Jesus had no rights--have we then?). He mayshow us that we must go to the one who has done us a wrong andconfess to him the far greater wrong of resenting it (Jesus neverresented anything or anyone--have we any right to?). He may call usto be open with our friends that they know us as we really are, andthus be able to have true fellowship with us. These acts may well behumiliating and a complete reversal of our usual attitudes of prideand selfishness, but by such acts we shall know true brokenness andbecome partakers of the humility of the Lamb. As we are willing forthis in each issue, the Blood of the Lamb will be able to cleanse usfrom all sin and we shall walk with God in white, with His peace inour hearts. 

CHAPTER 10PROTESTING OUR INNOCENCE?

We have all become so used to condemning the proud self-righteousattitude of the Pharisee in the parable of the Pharisee and thePublican, [footnote1:Luke 18:9-14] that we can hardly believe that thepicture of him there is meant to apply to us--which only shows howmuch like him we really are. The Sunday School teacher was never somuch a Pharisee, as when she finished her lesson on this parable withthe words, "And now, children, we can thank God that we are not asthis Pharisee!" In particular are we in danger of adopting thePharisee's attitude, when God is wanting to humble us at the Cross ofJesus, and show us the sins in our hearts that are hindering personalrevival. 

God's Picture of the Human Heart. 

We shall not understand the real wrong of the Pharisee's attitude, nor of our own, unless we view it against the background of what Godsays about the human heart. Said Jesus Christ, "From within, out ofthe heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, anevil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. "[footnote 2: Mark 7:20-23] Thesame dark picture of the human heart is given us in Paul's letter tothe Galatians, "The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these;adultery, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, divisions, parties, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings and such like. "[footnote 3: Gal. 5:19-21]What a picture! Jeremiah adds the same witness, "The heart isdeceitful above all things (that is, it deceives the man himself, sothat he does not know himself) and desperately wicked, who can knowit?"[footnote4:Jer. 17:9] Here then is God's picture of the human heart, the fallen self, "the old man, "[footnote5:Eph. 4:22] as the Scripturecalls it, whether it be in the unconverted or in the keenest Christian. It is hard to believe that these things can proceed from the heart ofministers, evangelists and Christian workers, but it is true. Thesimple truth is that the only beautiful thing about the Christian isJesus Christ. God wants us to recognise that fact as true in ourexperience, so that in true brokenness and self-despair we shallallow Jesus Christ to be our righteousness and holiness and allin all--and that is victory. 

Making God a Liar!

Now in face of God's description of the human heart, we can see whatit was that the Pharisee did. In saying, "I thank Thee that I am notas other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, " he wasprotesting his innocence of the very things that God says are inevery heart. He said in effect, "These things are doubtless true ofother men--this Publican is even now confessing them--but, Lord, notof me!" And in so saying, he was making God a liar, for "if we say wehave not sinned, we make Him a liar, "[footnote6:1 John 5:10] becauseHe says we have! Yet I feel sure that he was perfectly sincere inwhat he said. He really did believe that he was innocent of thesethings. Indeed, he is ascribing his imagined innocence to God, saying, "I thank thee ... " God's word, however, still stood againsthim. But he just had not seen it. The "penny had not dropped!" If thePublican is beating upon his breast and confessing his sins, it isnot because he has sinned worse than the Pharisee. It is simply thatthe Publican has seen that what God says is woefully true of him, andthe Pharisee has not. The Pharisee still thinks that outwardabstinence from certain sins is all that God requires. He has not yetunderstood that God looks, not on the outward appearance, but on theheart, [footnote7:1 Sam. 16:7] and accounts the look of lust theequivalent of adultery, [footnote8:Matt. 5:27-28] the attitude ofresentment and hate the same as murder, [footnote9:1 John 3:15. ] envyas actual theft, and the petty tyrannies in the home as wicked as themost extortionate dealings in the market. 

How often have not we, too, protested our innocence on the manyoccasions when God has been convicting others, and when He has wantedto convict us too. We have said in effect, "These things may be trueof others, but not of me!" and we may have said so quite sincerely. Perhaps we have heard of others who have humbled themselves and haverather despised them for the confessions they have had to make andthe things they had to put right in their lives. Or perhaps we havebeen genuinely glad that they have been blessed. But, whichever itis, we don't feel that we have anything to be broken about ourselves. Beloved, if we feel we are innocent and have nothing to be brokenabout, it is not that these things are not there, but that we havenot seen them. We have been living in a realm of illusion aboutourselves. God must be true in all that He says about us. In one formor another, He sees these things expressing themselves in us (unlesswe have recognised them and allowed God to deal with them)--unconsciousselfishness, pride and self-congratulation; jealousy, resentment andimpatience; reserve, fears and shyness; dishonesty and deception;impurity and lust; if not one thing, then another. But we are blindto it. We are perhaps so occupied with the wrong the other man has doneus, that we do not see that we are sinning against Christ in not beingwilling to take it with His meekness and lowliness. Seeing so clearlyhow the other man wants his own way and rights, we are blind to thefact that we want ours just as much; and yet we know there is somethingmissing in our lives. Somehow we are not in vital fellowship with God. We are not spiritually crisp. Our service does not "crackle with thesupernatural. " Unconscious sin is none the less sin with God andseparates us from Him. The sin in question may be quite a smallthing, which God will so readily show us, if we are only willing toask Him. 

There is yet another error we fall into, when we are not willing torecognise the truth of what God says of the human heart. Not only dowe protest our own innocence, but we often protest the innocence ofour loved ones. We hate to see them being convicted and humbled andwe hasten to defend them. We do not want them to confess anything. Weare not only living in a realm of illusion about ourselves, but aboutthem too, and we fear to have it shattered. But we are only defendingthem against God--making God a liar on their behalf, as we do on ourown, and keeping them from entering into blessing, as we do ourselves. 

Only a deep hunger for real fellowship with God will make us willingto cry to God for His all-revealing Light and to obey it when it isgiven. 

Justifying God. 

That brings us to the Publican. With all that God says about thehuman heart in our minds, we can see that his confession of sin wassimply a justifying of God, an admission that what God said of himwas true. Perhaps like the Pharisee, he used not to believe that whatGod said about man was really true of him. But the Holy Spirit hasshown him things in his life which prove God right, and he is broken. Not only does he justify God in all that he has said, but hedoubtless justifies God in all the chastening judgments God hasbrought upon him. Nehemiah's prayer might well have been his, "Howbeit Thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for Thou hastdone right and we have done wickedly. "[footnote10:Neh. 9:33]

This is ever the nature of true confession of sin, true brokenness. It is the confession that my sin is not just a mistake, a slip, asomething which is really foreign to my heart ("Not really like me tohave such thoughts or do such things!"), but that it is somethingwhich reveals the real 'I'; that shows me to be the proud, rotten, unclean thing God says I am; that it really is like me to have suchthoughts and do such things. It was in these terms that Davidconfessed his sin, when he prayed, "Against Thee, Thee only, have Isinned and done this evil in Thy sight, that Thou mightest bejustified when Thou speakest and be clear when Thoujudgest. "[footnote11:Psalm 51:4] Let us not fear then, to make such aconfession where God convicts us that we must, thinking that it will"let Jesus down. " Rather the reverse is true, for out of suchconfession God gets glory, for we declare Him to be right. Thisbrings us to a new experience of victory in Christ, for it declaresafresh, that "in me (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no goodthing, "[footnote12:Rom. 7:18] and brings us to a place where we giveup trying to make our incorrigible selves holy and where we takeJesus to be our holiness and His life to be our life. 

Peace and Cleansing. 

But the Publican did something more than justify God. He pointed tothe sacrifice on the altar, and found peace with God and cleansingfrom sin, as he did so. That comes out in the literal meaning of thewords which he uttered, "God be merciful to me, a sinner. " In theGreek, the words mean literally, "God be propitiated to me, thesinner. " The only way by which a Jew knew that God could bepropitiated was by a sacrifice, and, in all probability, at that veryhour the lamb for the daily burnt offering was being offered up onthe altar in the temple. 

With us it is the same. A man never comes to this position ofbrokenness, but God shows him the Divine Lamb on Calvary's Cross, putting away his sin by the shedding of His Blood. The God whodeclares beforehand what we are, provides beforehand for our sin. Jesus was the Lamb slain for our sins from the foundation of theworld. In Him, who bore them in meekness, my sins are finished. Andas I, in true brokenness, confess them, and put my faith in HisBlood, they are cleansed and gone. Peace with God then comes into myheart, fellowship with God is immediately restored, and I walk withHim in white. 

This simple way of being willing to justify God and see the power ofthe Blood to cleanse brings within our reach, as never before, aclose walk with Jesus, a constant dwelling with Him in the Holy ofHolies. As we walk with Him in the Light, He will be showing us allthe time the beginnings of things which, if allowed to pass, willgrieve Him and check the flow of His life in us--things which are theexpression of that old proud self, for which God has nothing butjudgment. At no point must we protest our innocence of what He showsus. All along we must be willing to justify Him and say, "Thou artright, Lord; that just shows what I am, " and be willing to give it toHim for cleansing. As we do so, we shall find that His precious Bloodis continuously cleansing us from sin, and that "the tide is beingcontinuously healed at its beginning, " and Jesus is continuouslyfilling us with His Spirit. This demands that we must be men of "ahumble and contrite spirit, " that is, men who are willing to be shownthe smallest thing. But such are the ones, God says, who "dwell withHim in the high and holy place, "[footnote13:Is. 57:15] and whoexperience continuous revival. 

There then is our choice--to protest our innocence and go down to ourhouse, unblessed, dry of soul and out of touch with God. Or tojustify God and to enter into peace, fellowship and victory throughthe Blood of Jesus.