A great many people are afraid of
the will of God, and yet I believe that one of the
sweetest lessons that we can learn in the school of
Christ is the surrender of our wills to God, letting
Him plan for us and rule our lives. If I know
my own mind, if an angel should come from the throne
of God and tell me that I could have my will done
the rest of my days on earth, and that everything I
wished should be carried out, or that I might refer
it back to God, and let God’s will be done in
me and through me, I think in an instant I would say:
“Let the will of God be done.”
I cannot look into the future.
I do not know what is going to happen to-morrow; in
fact, I do not know what may happen before night; so
I cannot choose for myself as well as God can choose
for me, and it is much better to surrender my will
to God’s will. Abraham found this out,
and I want to call your attention to four surrenders
that he was called to make. I think that they
give us a pretty good key to his life.
I
In the first place, Abraham was called
to give up his kindred and his native country,
and to go out, not knowing whither he went.
While men were busy building up Babylon,
God called this man out of that nation of the Chaldeans.
He lived down near the mouth of the Euphrates, perhaps
three hundred miles south of Babylon, when he was
called to go into a land that he perhaps had never
heard of before, and to possess that land.
In the twelfth chapter of Genesis,
the first four verses, we read:
“Now the Lord had said unto
Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred,
and from thy father’s house, unto a land that
I will shew thee.” Now notice the promise:
“And I will make of thee a great nation, and
I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou
shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that
bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee:
and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him;
and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy five
years old and when he departed out of Haran.”
It was several years before this that
God first told him to leave Ur of the Chaldees.
Then he came to Haran, which is about half-way between
the valley of the Euphrates and the valley of the Jordan.
God had called him into the land of the Canaanite,
and
HE CAME HALF-WAY,
and stayed there-we do
not know just how long, but probably about five years.
Now, I believe that there are a great
many Christians who are what might be called Haran
Christians. They go to Haran, and there they
stay. They only half obey. They are not out-and-out.
How was it that God got him out of Haran? His
father died. The first call was to leave Ur of
the Chaldees and go into Canaan, but instead of going
all the way they stopped half-way, and it was affliction
that drove Abram out of Haran. A great many of
us bring afflictions on ourselves, because we are
not out-and-out for the Lord. We do not obey
Him fully. God had plans He wanted to work out
through Abram, and He could not work them out as long
as he was there at Haran. Affliction came, and
then we find that he left Haran, and started for the
Promised Land.
There is just one word there about
Lot-“and Lot went with Abram.”
That is the key, you might say, to Lot’s life.
He was a weaker character than Abram, and he followed
his uncle.
When they got into the land that God
had promised to give him, Abram found it already inhabited
by great and warlike nations-not by one
nation, but by a number of nations. What could
he do, a solitary man, in that land? Not only
was his faith tested by finding the land preoccupied
by other strong and hostile nations, but he had not
been there a great while before a great famine came
upon him. No doubt a great conflict was going
on in his breast, and he said to himself:
“What does this mean? Here
I am, thirteen hundred miles away from my own land,
and surrounded by a warlike people. And not only
that, but a famine has come, and I must get out of
this country.”
Now, I don’t believe that God
sent Abram down to Egypt. I think that He was
only testing him, that he might in his darkness and
in his trouble be
DRAWN NEARER TO GOD.
I believe that many a time trouble
and sorrow are permitted to come to us that we may
see the face of God, and be shut up to trust in Him
alone. But Abram went down into Egypt, and there
he got into trouble by denying his wife. That
is the blackest spot on Abram’s character.
But when we get into Egypt we will always be getting
into trouble.
Abram became rich; but we don’t
hear of any altar-in fact, we hear of no
altar at Haran, and we hear of no altar in Egypt.
When he came up with Lot out of Egypt, they had great
possessions, and they increased in wealth, and their
herds had multiplied, until there was a strife among
their herdsmen.
Now it is that Abram’s character
shines out again. He might have said that he
had a right to the best of everything, because he was
the older, and because Lot would probably not have
been worth anything if it had not been for Abram’s
help. But instead of standing up for his rights,
to choose the best of the land, he surrenders them,
and says to the nephew:
“Take your choice. If you
go to the right hand, I will take the left; or if
you prefer the left hand, then I will go to the right.”
Here is where Lot made his mistake.
If there was a man under the sun that needed Abram’s
counsel, and Abram’s prayers, and Abram’s
influence, and to have been surrounded by the friends
of Abram, it was Lot. He was just one of those
weak characters that
NEEDED BOLSTERING UP.
But his covetous eye looked upon the
well-watered plains of the valley of the Jordan that
reached out towards Sodom, and he chose them.
He was influenced by what he saw, He walked by sight,
instead of by faith. I think that is where a
great many Christian people make their mistake-walking
by sight, instead of by faith. If he had stopped
to think, Lot might have known that it would be disastrous
to him and his family to go anywhere near Sodom.
Abram and Lot must both have known about the wickedness
of those cities on the plains, and although they were
rich, and there was chance of making money, it was
better for Lot to keep his family out of that wicked
city. But his eyes fell upon the well watered
plains, and he pitched his tent towards Sodom, and
separated from Abram.
Now, notice that after Abram had let
Lot have his choice, and Lot had gone off to the plains,
for the first time God had Abram alone. His father
had died at Haran, and he had left his brother there.
Now, after his nephew had left him, he moved down to
Hebron, and there built an altar. “Hebron”
means communion. Here it is that God came
to him and said:
“Abram, look around as far as
your eye can reach-it is all yours.
Look from the place where thou art northward, and southward,
and eastward, and westward: for all the land
which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy
seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the
dust of the earth: so that if a man can number
the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be
numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the
length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will
give it unto thee.”
“Then Abram removed his tent,
and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is
in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord.”
It is astonishing how far you can
see in that country. God took Moses up on Pisgah
and showed him the Promised Land. In Palestine,
a few years ago, I found that on Mount Olivet I could
look over and see the Mediterranean. I could
look into the valley of the Jordan, and see the Dead
Sea. And on the plains of Sharon I could look
up to Mount Lebanon, and up at Mount Hermon, away
beyond Nazareth. You can see with the naked eye
almost the length and breadth of that country.
So when God said to Abram that he might look to the
north, and that as far as he could see he could have
the land; and then look to the south, with its well-watered
plains that Lot coveted, and to the east and the west,
from the sea to the Euphrates-then God
gave His friend Abram a clear title, no conditions
whatever, saying:
“I will give it all to you.”
Lot chose all he could get, but it
was not much. Abram let God choose for him, and
was given all the land. Lot had no security for
his choice, and soon lost all. Abram’s right
was maintained undisputed by God the giver.
Do you know that the children of Israel
never had faith enough to take possession of all that
land as far as the Euphrates? If they had, probably
Nebuchadnezzar would never have come and taken them
captives. But that was God’s offer; He said
to Abram, “Unto your seed I will give it forever,
clear to the valley of the Euphrates.”
From that time on God enlarged Abram’s tents.
He enriched His promises, and gave him much more that
He had promised down there in the valley of the Euphrates
when He first called him out. It is very interesting
to see how God kept
ADDING TO THE PROMISE
for the benefit of His friend Abram.
Let us go back a moment to Lot, and
see what Lot gained by making that choice. I
believe that you can find five thousand Lots to one
Abram to-day. People are constantly walking by
sight, lured by the temptations of men and of the
world. Men are very anxious to get their sons
into lucrative positions, although it way be disastrous
to their character; it may ruin them morally and religiously,
and in every other way. The glitter of this world
seems to attract them. Some one has said that
Abram was a far-sighted man, and Lot was a short-sighted
man; his eye fell on the land right around him.
There is the one thing that we are quite sure of-he
was so short-sighted that his possessions soon left
him. And you will find that these people who
are constantly building for time are disappointed.
I have no doubt that the men of Sodom
said that Lot was
A MUCH SHREWDER MAN
than his uncle Abram, and that if
he lived twenty-five years he would be the richer
of the two, and that by coming into Sodom he could
sell his cattle and sheep and goats and whatever else
he had for large sums, and could get a good deal better
market than Abram could back there on the plains of
Mamre.
For awhile Lot did make money very
fast, and became a very successful man. If you
had gone into Sodom a little while before destruction
came, you would have found that Lot owned some of the
best corner lots in town, and that Mrs. Lot moved in
what they called the bon-ton society or upper
ten; and you would have found that she was at the
theatre two or three nights in the week. If they
had progressive euchre, she could play as well as anybody;
and her daughters could dance as well as any other
Sodomites. We find Lot sitting in the gates,
he was getting on amazingly well. He might have
been one of the principal men in the city; Judge Lot,
or the Honorable Lot of Sodom. If there had been
a Congress in those days, they would have run him
for a seat in Congress. They might have elected
him
MAYOR OF SODOM.
He was getting on amazingly well;
wonderfully prosperous.
But by and by there comes a war.
If you go into Sodom, you must take Sodom’s
judgment when it comes, for it is bound to come.
The battle turned against those five cities of the
plain and they took Lot and his wife and all that
they had, and one man escaped and ran off to Hebron
and told Abram what had taken place. Abram took
his servants,-three hundred and eighteen
of them,-went after these victorious kings,
and soon returned with all the booty and all the prisoners.
III
On Abram’s way back with the
spoils one of the strangest scenes of history occurs.
Whom should he meet but Melchizedek, who brought out
bread and wine; and the priestly king blessed the Father
of the Faithful. After the old king of peace
had blest him, he met the King of Sodom, and the King
of Sodom said, “You take the money, and I will
take the people”; but Abram replied:
“Not a thing will I take, not
even the shoe-latchets, lest thou shouldst say, I
have made Abram rich.”
There is another surrender. There
was a temptation to get rich at the hands of the
King of Sodom. But the King of Salem had blessed
him, and this world did not tempt him. It tempted
Lot, and no doubt Lot thought Abram made a great mistake
when he refused to take this wealth; but Abram would
not touch a thing; he spurned it and turned from it.
He had the world under his feet; he was living for
another world. He would not be enriched from
such a source.
Every one of us is met by the prince
of this world and the Prince of Peace. The one
tempts us with wealth, pleasure, ambition: but
our Prince and Priest is ready to succor and strengthen
us in the hour of temptation.
A friend of mine told me some years
ago that his wife was very fond of painting, but that
for a long time he never could see any beauty in her
paintings; they all looked like a daub to him.
One day his eyes troubled him and he went to see an
oculist. The man looked in amazement at him and
said:
“You have what we call a short
eye and a long eye, and that makes everything a blur.”
He gave him some glasses that just
fitted him, and then he could see clearly. Then,
he said, he understood why it was that his wife was
so carried away with art, and he built an art gallery,
and filled it full of beautiful things; because everything
looked so beautiful after he had had his eyes straightened
out.
Now there are lots of people that have
A LONG EYE AND A SHORT EYE,
and they make miserable work of their
Christian life. They keep one eye on the eternal
city and the other eye on the well-watered plains
of Sodom. That was the way it was with Lot:
he had a short eye and a long eye. It would be
pretty hard work to believe that Lot was saved if
it were not for the New Testament. But there we
read that “Lot’s righteous soul was vexed,”-so
he had a righteous soul, but he had a stormy time.
He didn’t have peace and joy and victory like
Abram.
After Abram had given up the wealth
of Sodom that was offered him, then God came and enlarged
his borders again-enlarged the promise.
God said:
“I will be your exceeding great
reward; I will protect you.”
Abram might have thought that these
kings that he had defeated might get other kings and
other armies to come, and he might have thought of
himself as a solitary man, with only three hundred
and eighteen men, so that he might have feared lest
he be swept from the face of the earth. But the
Lord came and said:
“Abram, fear not.”
That is the first time those oft-repeated
words, “fear not,” occur in the Bible.
“Fear not, for I will be your shield and your
reward.”
I would rather have that promise than
all the armies of earth and all the navies of the
world to protect me-to have the God of heaven
for my Protector! God was teaching Abram that
He was to be his Friend and his Shield, if he would
surrender himself wholly to His keeping, and trust
in His goodness. That is what we want-to
surrender ourselves up to God, fully and wholly.
In Colorado the superintendent of
some works told me of a miner that was promoted, who
came to the superintendent, and said:
“There is a man that has seven
children, and I have only three, and he is having
a hard struggle. Don’t promote me, but promote
him.”
I know of nothing that speaks louder
for Christ and Christianity than to see a man or woman
giving up what they call their rights for others,
and “in honor preferring one another.”
We find that Abram was constantly
surrendering his own selfish interests and trusting
to God. What was the result? Of all the men
that ever lived he is the most renowned. He never
did anything the world would call great. The
largest army he ever mustered was three hundred and
eighteen men. How Alexander would have sneered
at such an army as that! How Cæsar would have
looked down on such an army! How Napoleon would
have curled his lip as he thought of Abram with an
army of three hundred and eighteen! We are not
told that he was a great astronomer; we are not told
that he was a great scientist; we are not told that
he was a great statesman, or anything the world calls
great; but there was one thing he could do-he
could live an unselfish life, and in honor could waive
his rights, and in that way he became the friend of
God; in that way he has become immortal. There
is
NO NAME IN HISTORY
so well known as the name of Abram.
Even Christ is not more widely known, for the Mohammedans,
the Persians, and the Egyptians make a great deal
of Abram. His name has been for centuries and
centuries favorably known in Damascus. God promised
him that great men, and warriors, and kings, and emperors,
should spring from his loins. Was there ever
a nation that has turned out such men? Think of
Moses, and Joseph, and Joshua, and Caleb, and Samuel,
and David, and Solomon, and Elisha. Think of
Elijah, and Daniel, and Isaiah, and all the other
wonderful Bible characters that have sprung from this
man! Then think of Peter, of James, and John,
and Paul, and John the Baptist, a mighty army.
No man can number the multitude of wonderful men that
have sprung from this one man called out of the land
of the Chaldeans, unknown and an idolater, probably,
when God called him; and yet how literally God has
fulfiled His promise that through him He would bless
all the nations of the earth. All because he
surrendered himself fully and wholly to let God bless
him.
IV
The last surrender is perhaps the
most touching and the hardest of all to understand.
Perhaps he could not have borne it until the evening
of life. God had been taking him along, step by
step, until now he had reached a place where he had
learned to obey fully whatever God told him to do.
I believe the world has yet to see what God will do
with the man who is perfectly surrendered. Next
to God’s own Son, Abraham was perhaps the man
who came nearest to this standard.
FOR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS
Abraham had been in the Promised Land
without the promised heir. God had promised that
He would bless all the nations of the earth through
him, and yet He did not give him a son. Abraham’s
faith almost staggered a number of times. Ishmael
was born, but God set aside the son of the bondwoman,
for he was not to be the ancestor of the Son of God.
God was setting Abram apart simply that He might prepare
the way for His own Son, and now, at last, a messenger
comes down from heaven to Hebron, and tells Abraham
in his old age that he should have a son.
It seemed too good to be true.
He had hard work to believe it; but at the appointed
time Isaac was born into that family. I don’t
believe there was ever a child born into the world
that caused so much joy in the home as in Abraham’s
heart and home. How Abraham and that old mother,
Sarah, must have doted on that child! How their
eyes feasted on him!
But just when the lad was growing up into manhood Abraham
received another very strange command, and there was another surrender-his
only son. Perhaps he was making an idol of
that boy, and thought more of him than he did of the
God that gave him. There must be no idol in the
heart if we are going to do the will of God on earth.
I can imagine that one night the old
patriarch retired worn out and weary. The boy
had gone fast to sleep, when suddenly a heavenly messenger
came and told him that he must take that boy off on
to a mountain that God was to show him, and offer
him up as a sacrifice. No more sleep that night!
If you had looked into that tent the next morning
I can imagine that you would have seen the servants
flying round and making preparations for the master’s
taking a long journey. He perhaps keeps the secret
locked up in his heart, and he doesn’t tell
even Sarah or Isaac. He doesn’t tell the
servants, even the faithful servant Eliezer, what
is to take place. About nine o’clock you
might have seen those four men-Abraham,
Isaac and the two young men with them-start
off on the long journey. Once in a while Abraham
turns his head aside and wipes away the tear.
He doesn’t want Isaac to see what a terrible
struggle is going on within. It is a hard battle
to give up his will and to surrender that boy, the
idol of his life. Oh, how he loved him!
I can imagine the first night.
The boy soon falls asleep, tired and weary with the
hot day’s journey, but the old man doesn’t
sleep. I can see him look into the face of the
innocent boy, and say:
“Soon my boy will be gone, and
I will be returning without him.”
Perhaps most of the night his voice
could have been heard in prayer, as he cries to God
to help him; and as God had helped him in the past
so God was helping him that night.
The next day they journeyed on, and
again a terrible conflict goes on. Again he brushes
away the tear. Perhaps Isaac sees it, and says:
“Father is going away to meet
his God, and the angels may come down and talk with
him as at Hebron. That is what he is so agitated
about.”
The second night comes, and the old
man looks into that face every hour of the night.
He sleeps a little, but not much, and the next morning
at family worship he breaks down. He cannot finish
his prayer.
They journey on that day-it
is a long day-and the old patriarch say:
“This is the last day I am to have my boy with
me. To-morrow I must offer him up; to-morrow
I shall be without the son of my bosom.”
The third night comes, and what a
night it must have been! I can imagine he didn’t
eat or sleep that night. Nothing is going to break
his fast, and every hour of the night he goes to look
into the face of that boy, and once in a while he
bends over and kisses him, and he says:
“O Isaac, how can I give thee up?”
Morning breaks. What a morning
it must have been for that father! He doesn’t
eat; he tries to pray, but his voice falters.
After breakfast they start on their journey again.
He has not gone a great way before he lifts up his
eyes, and yonder is Mount Moriah. His heart begins
to beat quickly. He says to the two young men:
“You stay here, and I will go yonder with my
son.”
Then, as father and son went up Mount
Moriah, with the wood, and the fire, and the knife,
the boy turns suddenly to the father, and says:
“Father, where is the lamb?
We haven’t any offering, father.”
It was a common thing for Isaac to
see his father offer up a victim, but there is no
lamb now.
Did you ever think
HOW PROPHETIC THAT ANSWER WAS
when Abraham turned and said to the
son, “God will provide Himself a sacrifice?”
I don’t know that Abraham understood the full
meaning of it, but a few hundred years after God did
provide a sacrifice right there. Mount Moriah
and Mount Calvary are close together, and God’s
Son was provided as a sacrifice for the world.
On Mount Moriah this father and son
begin to roll up the stones, and together they build
the altar; then they lay on the wood and everything
is ready for the victim. Isaac looks around to
see where the lamb is and then the father can keep
it from the son no longer, and he says:
“My boy, sit down here close
to the altar, and let me tell you something.”
Then perhaps that old, white-haired
patriarch puts his arm around the lad, and tells how
God came to him in the land of the Chaldeans, and
the story of his whole life, and how, by one promise
after another, God had kept enlarging the promised
blessings, and that He would bless all the nations
of the earth through him. Isaac was to be the
heir. But he says:
“My son, the last night I was
at home God came to me in the hours of the night and
told me to bring you here and offer you up as a sacrifice.
I don’t understand what it means, but I can tell
you one thing: it is much harder for me to offer
you up than it would be for me to be sacrificed myself.”
There was a time when I used to think
more of the love of Jesus Christ than of God the Father.
I used to think of God as a stern judge on the throne,
from whose wrath Jesus Christ had saved me. It
seems to me now I could not have
A FALSER IDEA OF GOD
than that. Since I have become
a father I have made this discovery: that it
takes more love and self-sacrifice for the father to
give up the son than it does for the son to die.
Is a father on earth a true father that would not
rather suffer than to see his child suffer? Do
you think that it did not cost God something to redeem
this world? It cost God the most precious possession
He ever had. When God gave His Son, He gave all,
and yet He gave Him freely for you and me.
I can imagine that Abraham talks to
Isaac and tells him how hard it is to offer him up.
“But God has commanded it,” he says, “and
I surrender my will to God’s will. I don’t
understand it, but I believe that God will be able
to raise you up, and maybe He will.”
They fell on their faces, and prayed
together. After prayer I can see that old father
take his boy to his bosom, and embrace him for the
last time. He kisses and kisses him. Then
he takes those hands that are so innocent, and binds
them, and he binds the feet, and he ties him up, and
lays him on the altar, and gives him a last kiss.
Then he takes the knife, and raises his hand.
No sooner is the hand lifted than a voice calls from
heaven:
“Abraham, Abraham, spare thy son!”
You remember that Christ said, “Abraham
saw my day, and was glad.” I have an idea
that God then and there just
LIFTED THE CURTAIN OF TIME
for Abraham. He looked down into
the future, saw God’s Son coming up Calvary,
bearing his sins and the sins of all posterity.
God gave him that secret, and told him how His Son
was to come into the world and take away his sins.
Now, my friends, notice: whenever
God has been calling me to higher service, there has
always been a conflict with my will. I have fought
against it, but God’s will has been done instead
of mine. When I came to Jesus Christ, I had a
terrible battle to surrender my will, and to take
God’s will. When I gave up business, I had
another battle for three months; I fought against
it. It was a terrible battle. But oh! how
many times I have thanked God that I gave up my will
and took God’s will. Then there was another
time when God was calling me into higher service,
to go out and preach the gospel all over the land,
instead of staying in Chicago. I fought against
it for months; but the best thing I ever did was when
I surrendered my will, and let the will of God be
done in me. Because Abraham obeyed God and held
back not even his only child, God enlarged his promises
once again:
“And the angel of the Lord called
unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said,
By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because
thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy
son, thine only son: that in blessing I will
bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy
seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which
is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess
the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all
the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou
hast obeyed my voice.”
If you take my advice, you will have
no will other than God’s will. Make a full
and complete surrender, and the sweet messages of heaven
will come to you. God will whisper into your soul
THE SECRETS OF HEAVEN.
After Abraham did what God told him,
then it was that God told His friend all about His
Son. If we make a full surrender, God will give
us something better than we have ever known before.
We will get a new vision of Jesus Christ, and will
thank God not only in this life but in the life to
come. May God help each and every one of us to
make a full and complete and unconditional surrender
to God, fully and wholly, now and forever.