DELIVERANCE FROM THE POWER OF SIN

[nChrist]

DELIVERANCE FROM THE POWER OF SIN
by F. B. Meyer
1847-1929

Short Bio:  The Rev. Frederick Brotherton Meyer (April 8, 1847 – March 28, 1929) was a contemporary and friend of D. L. Moody. He was a pastor and evangelist in England involved in ministry and inner city mission work on both sides of the Atlantic. He was the author of numerous religious books and articles, and God has used him to help many on a path to Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. This material is very old, but it's timeless because God is Glorified, and God is still using it.


Philippians 2:12-13 : "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure."

"Salvation." "Work out your own salvation." There is a sense in which salvation is finished. There is another sense in which it is in process. Finished by Christ when He died, and yet in process by the Holy Ghost in our heart.

Salvation is a great prize, with two termini. The first terminus is on the cross, where Jesus saved from the guilt, the penalty of sin; the second terminus is in His second Advent, when the body will be raised and married to the spirit, and salvation will be complete. But between His cross where Jesus put away guilt, and the second Advent where the body is married to the spirit, between these two there is the process of being saved from the power and the love of sin.

In Acts 2:47, and 1 Corinthians 1:18, the Revised version in each case speaks of people being saved. "The Lord added to them day by day those that were being saved." "The word of the cross is to them that are perishing, foolishness: but unto us which are being saved it is the power of God."

A man says to me; "Are you saved?"

I reply: "I was saved when I trusted Christ; I shall be saved when my body is raised; but I am being saved all the time." Aye, we are being saved.

Remember that sin is a parasite. Your little babe has got measles, scarlatina, scarlet-fever; but measles, scarlatina, scarlet-fever are not native to it-they are parasites; and it is possible that in a few days they will pass, and your child's skin will be better. So sin is not necessary to human nature. Adam was created without it. Christ, a man, lived without it, and we men and women some day will have got over our mumps and measles and bronchitis, and we shall be whole.

Sin is a parasite. Thank God, the day will come when I shall stand up before my God without a stick or stone of sin. I may carry some scar that sin has left, but sin itself will be gone forever.

Next: God comes into your heart to take your side against the parasite sin.
A dear friend of mine told me that her boy came back from school with scarlet-fever, He came home in a carriage, wrapped in blankets. As he was brought into the hall, she met him and said:

"My boy, mother has got a room upstairs for you and herself, and mother is going to sit down by your bed, and she is never going to leave it till you are well, and mother is going to help you fight against the fever."

And she shut herself up in the bed-room with him. Do you think she loved the boy less because he was so long getting well? Once he said to her:

"Mother, you have not kissed me lately. Don't you love me quite so much because I have got all these marks?"

She kissed him, and said: "I loved you before, but I think I love you better now."

So, dear soul, cursed with the sin which thou hast taken into thy heart, God hates the sin, but He loves thee! He knew all about it before He chose thee. He will never be surprised. He will never be disappointed. He will never love you less. But the more sinful you are, the weaker you are, the more often you have a relapse and go back, the more often you fall, the mother in God, -- for there is mother as well as father in God, -- the mother in God who has come into your heart will fight sin step by step with you. Your weakness will command His strongest love.

He sits down beside you. The fever is on your head and body. He knows it will take long vigil, long care, long patience. He has counted the cost; He is prepared for a long sickness. He has taken you in hand, your passions, your impurity, your garrulous gossip, your sulkiness, your jealousy, your vainglory, your love of money, your love of sin; God knows it all. But He has come, and will never leave you for a moment. If you will let Him, He will make short work. If you resist Him, you will make the work longer. But He will never leave you, He will never give you up, and however often you fall, go back to Him again.

Suppose some mother had a boy with scarlet fever, and in the fever he got delirious, and instead of keeping in bed he kept getting out; it would be very trying, very disappointing. He would throw his recovery back, but the mother would still cling to him. She would be sorry, and disappointed, and wish he had not done it; but she would love him, she could not give the boy up, she would bring him through.

[nChrist]

DELIVERANCE FROM THE POWER OF SIN
by F. B. Meyer
1847-1929

O soul, thou hast thought ill of thy God! Thou hast thought because thou didst so often fall that God was tired of thee. Ah! thou knowest not that His tender mercy is infinite, and He will never let you go, NEVER, until in heaven He kisses your face, out of which the fever and the brand of sin have gone forever.

O, my God, thou wilt kiss my soul into health!

Remember further that His purpose is to deliver from the power of sin. The guilt is gone, but the power remains, and He can only deliver from this gradually. Now, understand me. People ask if I believe in progressive or instantaneous sanctification. I reply -- first, I do not believe in sanctification, I believe in the Sanctifier; I do not believe in holiness, I believe in the Holy One. Not an it, but a person; not an attribute, but Christ in my heart. Instantaneous? Yes, in this way: that in a moment I can take up the true attitude toward Christ; but progressive, because stage after stage He will carry on His work within me, weaning me, saving me from the love and the power of sin, deeper, deeper, deeper down into my heart. I take up the position suddenly, but I apply the position all along my life.

Is not this true? To-day you see things to be wrong which five years ago you permitted, and five years from to-day you will see things wrong which you now permit. Evidently the work is progressive. God sheds light upon our life. It is but the twilight at first. In the twilight I can see a chair and a table and a piano and a chiffonier: that is all. But the twilight merges into morning, and in the morning light I can see smaller things: the ornaments, the pictures that are on the wall. But morning becomes noon, and now I see the dust which has gathered. I could not see that in the twilight, but I see it at noon.

So God deals with yon and me. He does not turn the heart upside down, and empty it of every sin at once. First the twilight, and we put away obvious sin; then morning, and we put away other sins not seen before; then eleven o'clock in the morning, and we put away deeper sins that we had missed; until it comes toward meridian, and in the perfect light we put away more sins, the small dust we had missed. We see deeper, deeper down, and every year a man is saved more completely from the power of known sin. So it is gradual.

I think it is perfectly absurd for a man to say he is perfectly sanctified. He is not within a thousand miles of it. Once, when in Leicester, I was paying parochial calls, and dropped in on a washerwoman who had just got out a line of clothes. I congratulated my friend because they looked so white. So, very much encouraged by her pastor's kind words, she asked him to have a cup of tea, and we sat down. Whilst we were taking the tea, the sky clouded and there was a snow storm; and as I came out the white snow lay everywhere, and I said to her:

"Your washing does not look quite so clean as it did." "Ah," she said, " the washing is right enough; but what can stand against God Almighty's white?"

So you may think that you are clean, because you have never seen God. When you see God, your holiest day will seem to be imperfect; you will abhor yourself and repent in dust and ashes, and you will need to say:

"Forgive me my debts as I forgive my debtors."

SALVATION FROM KNOWN SIN -- BUT NOT FROM TEMPTATION

Still, up to the limit of our light God can keep us from known sin. I will say that again: up to the limit of our light -- twilight, morning, noon -- up to the limit of our light God is able to keep us from all conscious and known sin. But He will not keep us from temptation. You cannot help the devil knocking at the door, but you can help inviting him in to supper. You cannot help the foul vulture flying over your head, but you can help letting him make a nest in your hair.

When you live near God you will be most tempted of the devil. Some men seem to think they are not holy because they are tempted. I should not believe in a man's holiness if he were not tempted. When I was at school, the boys used to avoid certain orchards, because they were full of crab apples; and you might know that the apples in those orchards were sour, or the boys would go for them. And if you are not tempted, it shows that your heart is empty and wicked, and not worth the Devil's time to spend over it.

NOT WORTH THE DEVIL'S WHILE

When the Spirit of God descended upon Christ He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil -- Spirit-filled, devil-tempted.

You ask, why does God let us be tempted? I think it is to show where we are weak; that upon the temptation, as our stepping stone, we may reach out for some of God's help. I would not know how much I needed Christ unless the devil were constantly tempting me.

God is working in you. The compunction you feel when you sin, the yearning you feel for a better life, your desire to go to a religious meeting, all are proofs that God is working in you to deliver you. Many a woman of fashion or society is, perhaps, living in the very whirl of it, and yet, poor thing, in it she really wants something better. My sister, do not be disheartened -- that is God working in you! I believe you are a real child of His, but you are so weak, and you do not like to stand alone, you do what other women do, and yet you hate it all the time, and you want the better life. Understand that God is working in you; you are the workshop of God.

[nChrist]

DELIVERANCE FROM THE POWER OF SIN
by F. B. Meyer
1847-1929

WORK OUT WHAT GOD WORKS IN

Now, I come to my next point. When God works in, you must work out. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is GOD that worketh in you."

You must work out what God works in, and you must do it with fear and trembling. Let me explain. Suppose a great artist is training a young student. He says to that student:

"I am coming into your studio to help you tomorrow from nine till twelve."

It is a wonderful thing that this illustrious artist should spend three hours with that obscure student; and the man fears. He does not fear the teacher, but he fears lest he will miss a minute of the teacher's help. He trembles, not because he dreads the teacher, but because he is a miser to use up every hint, every suggestion, every touch. O! he trembles lest he should lose anything. So, dear soul, listen. The great God has come into your life to live there, and He says to you: "I am going to save you from the power of sin." How careful you ought to be! When God speaks, obey. When God gives a hint, instantly act upon it. Be very fearful lest by any word or act of yours you spoil and thwart and put back God's work in your life. Work out with fear and trembling.

God in you will work to will, and then God in you will work to do what He wills. First, God works to will. He does not work to make you feel, because feeling ends in smoke so often. God does not work in you to think, because you think and think again But God works in you to will. That is, there rises up in your heart a desire which becomes at last a purpose to be free. No one knows it, no one guesses it; but in your soul there rises up the will.

God is always definite. The devil confounds us by bringing a number of points before us, but when God deals with us He deals with one point at a time. He takes one sin, one failure, one encumbrance or weight. When you are at the communion table, when you are alone, when you are reading your Bible, this one thing comes up. God works away there. Now meet Him there, and He will work in you to will against it. That is the first thing. That was so with me.

About seventeen years ago, when God began to work with me, there was a thing in my life no one knew; but in my silent hour God worked in me to will that it should cease. I was so weak I could not put it away.

Blessed be God, the willing and the doing are from Him, and by faith you look to Him to do for you what you cannot do for yourself.

I have found God works thus. He leads me to see a thing to be wrong, and then I put my will against it. Whenever it comes towards me, God says:

"It is coming. Hide, hide in the cleft of the Rock. I see it coming."

It is like a chick, -- a hawk, -- the mother; I run-I hide -- the devil finds me in Christ. And if I fall through not trusting Him to keep me, He works in me to be sorry, and I am sorry; and then He works in me to confess.

Two years ago, one Sunday morning, on coming down to my church, I found that the verger had done a very foolish thing, for vergers (though they live in the church) are not immaculate. I lost my temper. I was going to preach within a quarter of an hour. As a result of losing my temper, I was as far out of fellowship with God as a man may get. My officers were all coming in to pray with me before I entered the pulpit. I did not know what to do. I knew I had fallen. I knew I dared not preach God's gospel until I was right with man, because one cannot be more right with God than with his brother man; one's position as a man is the gauge and indicator of one's position before God. I thought they would all think that I was crazy, but I rang the bell, called the verger in, and said to him:

"You did an uncommonly unwise thing just now -- I cannot take that back: but that did not exonerate me for losing my temper. Forgive me."

The man looked more startled than pleased, but that did not matter. I had done what was right, and my soul shot into the blue of God's heaven again. God worked in me to confess.

A man loses his temper with his wife at breakfast. He goes down town. All the morning he wishes that he had not done it, and the Spirit of God in him says:
"Tell her when you get home that you are sorry."

No, we men are very tough material, and instead he says: "I will buy her a basket of strawberries."

He comes with his little peace-offering. She, poor dear, understands it. She has lived long enough to know that he is only mortal, and she takes the offering as an apology. But he would have been a manlier and a happier and a more Christlike man if he had said:

"Wife, I am a minister, I am an elder, I am a good man really, but I was away from God, and the devil tripped me up. Forgive me, sweetheart, forgive me."
That would be the best way. And when God works in you to confess, confess! Confess to man, to woman, to child, to servant, to Him; and His blood will wash you whiter than snow.

How long does it take between confession and forgiveness? When I was a boy at school and talked to the boy next to me, they sent me down to the bottom of the class, and it took me a month to work up. When you do wrong and confess it, God does not put you down and leave you to work up for a whole month, but on the spot, immediately, He forgives you and restores your soul, and puts you back where you were before you fell.

Only, dear soul, abide in Jesus. Let the Holy Ghost in you keep you abiding in Jesus, so that when Satan comes to knock at your door, Jesus will go and open it, and as soon as the devil sees the face of Christ looking through the door, he will turn tail like a whipped cur. Let Jesus live in your heart. Do you live in Jesus? When the devil comes, do not meet him yourself, but let Jesus meet him, and you stand behind Him. The Negro said: "When the devil comes to me, I always introduce him to his betters." Put Jesus between you and the devil. Live in Christ. God will work in you. He will make you hate sin. He will make you loathe what you loved. He will deliver you deeper, ever deeper in your life, from the power and the love of sin. It may be a long process before the work is done, but He will keep you from known sin, and save you ever deeper down in your heart.

Oh, Thou who art able to keep us from stumbling and to present us faultless before Thy glory "with exceeding joy, to Thee, Emmanuel, Christ, Son of God, lover of my soul, I yield my life, my soul, my all!