DECISION FOR CHRIST
[p. 116] DECISION FOR CHRIST
I would not speak of decision for Christ to a careless sinner who had neither felt the burden of his sins nor believed in the Lord Jesus. Harm is often done by calling upon ungodly sinners to decide for Christ, and perhaps to stand up in token that they have done so. The effect is to occupy them with some act of their own, rather than with Christ and the grace of God. They feel they have done something, and this is very injurious to them spiritually, even when there is a real work of God in them. Alas! many have “decided for Christ” just as they might have taken a temperance pledge, without any sense of their lost condition, or any real work of God’s Spirit in their souls.
But there are many souls who have been truly convicted of sin, and whose hearts have turned to the Lord Jesus as their Saviour, who have not had courage to confess His name; they have not come to the point of definitely taking a stand for Christ. It is with this class in view that I desire to say a few words on decision for Christ.
In connection with this I may say that Satan always does his best to hinder souls from taking THE NEXT STEP.
This is true from the beginning to the end of the soul’s history. God takes us up in His grace and leads us on step by step, and whatever may be the next step that God would have us take is just the very point at which all Satan’s forces will be concentrated to hinder us. For instance, when one begins to be troubled about his sins Satan will bring in a hundred things to stop the exercise. Friends will be more entertaining than ever, one’s attention will be diverted perhaps to politics, to some form of pleasure one never thought of before, to some interesting book, to some hobby or other, to some religious work, to some scheme for doing [p. 117] good; anything and everything will be brought in to diminish or destroy that exercise of conscience before God which is making the soul feel its deep need of salvation.
But if soul-concern cannot be dismissed by these means — and, thank God, it cannot when His Spirit is at work — if in spite of all this the sense of need continues and the distress of soul deepens, Satan falls back a step and rallies all his hosts at another point. He does all he can now to darken the gospel by turning souls in upon themselves — their works, prayers, experience, feelings, repentance, faith, etc., etc. Whole regiments of doubts, fears, questionings, and misapprehensions confront the anxious one to hinder him from looking only and altogether to CHRIST.
But grace triumphs in the end, and the believer looks away from himself to Jesus. He finds the whole foundation of his confidence in Another. He sees that God has provided a Saviour worthy of all his trust. He accepts for himself the faithful saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He believes on God who raised that blessed One from the dead, and, having righteousness imputed to him, and being justified by faith, he enters into peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now he is ready for a third step, and the warfare wages round another movement. It is at this point the question of decision for Christ comes plainly to the front. Now Satan’s object will be to hinder him from confessing Christ. He will heap all kinds of real or imaginary difficulties in the way of taking a stand for the Lord. He will make it apparently the most difficult thing in the world to come out simply and decidedly for Christ. He knows well how to work on the timidity of the flesh, and to use the fear of man to ensnare the soul. The pride of the flesh is also a great hindrance. We are often so painfully sensitive as to what people may say or think of us — so terribly unwilling to make fools of ourselves in the eyes of our worldly friends. And in some [p. 118] cases souls are hindered by the pious fear that they might break down and dishonour the worthy Name.
Now let me seek to encourage you to take the decisive step. In the first place, I am sure that you would be happier. You are ill at ease in your present position, for it is in one way a false one. You are like a man who has joined the army and taken the shilling, but has not yet put on the regimentals. Your very indecision leads you into trouble, for you get into conversation with the ungodly, and are carried on from one thing to another until, like Lot, your soul is vexed with the filthy conversation and unlawful deeds of the wicked, and you have no power to resist it or to escape from it, because you are ashamed to avow that you belong to the Lord Jesus. If you took a distinct stand you would escape from very much of this.
And further, you would be supported by the power of God. A believer who does not take a stand for the Lord does not get divine support. If I went to some foreign country and by carefully concealing the fact that I was an Englishman, led everybody to conclude that I was a native of that foreign country, I could not complain if, when troubles arose, the British Government did not interfere on my behalf. In such a case they might justly say, “We will support with all our power the honour of the British flag, but we will not support a man who is ashamed of that flag”. All the power of God will support the honour of the Name of the Lord Jesus. Divine support, and security for the believer against all the power of evil, are connected with the fact that he confesses the Lord Jesus. He has come under a lordship of blessing and gracious power of which he is not ashamed. And he gets the support of that power by the Spirit to maintain him against all the power of evil here. Rahab “bound the scarlet line in the window” (Joshua 2), and thus put herself under the protection of Jehovah. It was the confession that she submitted to His righteousness, and put her trust [p. 119] in His grace and power. She connected herself thus with His Name, and He became her security against every evil.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego present a fine example of whole-hearted decision. “O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up” (Daniel 3: 16 - 18). Believers are often exceedingly “careful” not to involve themselves in any suffering or loss for Christ, but by such a course they deprive themselves of the true power and joy of Christianity, and of much honour that God would put upon them. They need to drink a little more into the spirit of the apostles, who rejoiced “that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name” (Acts 5: 41).
Moses refused greatness in Egypt, even when it had been put within his reach by the providence of God. He chose “to suffer affliction with the people of God”. It was not that he submitted to it as an unavoidable trial. He voluntarily chose it, “esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward” (Hebrews 11: 24 - 26). This is the course that faith takes. It throws in its lot with the despised and suffering “people of God”, and esteems itself a gainer by having exchanged the good things of this life and the pleasures of sin for “the reproach of Christ” and “the sufferings of this present time”.
I wish now to bring before you another aspect of decision for Christ, of which we find an illustration in Genesis 24. “And the servant brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebecca: he gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things. And they did eat and drink, he and the men that were with him,
[p. 120] and tarried all night; and they rose up in the morning, and he said, Send me away unto my master. And her brother and her mother said, Let the damsel abide with us a few days, at the least ten; after that she shall go. And he said unto them, Hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my way; send me away that I may go to my master. And they said, We will call the damsel and enquire at her mouth. And they called Rebecca, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go” (verses 53 - 58).
Abraham’s steward had come to Mesopotamia to secure a bride for Isaac, and his mission presents an undoubted type of the present activity of the Spirit of God who has come down from a glorified Christ to secure hearts for Him. I am not speaking of His activity towards sinners now, but of His work in saints. He has come to secure the bridal affections of the church for Christ. The first part of His service in view of this is to give us conscious suitability for Christ. “The servant brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebecca”. All these things came from Abraham’s house, from the place where Isaac was; they formed no part of Rebecca’s possessions as the daughter of Bethuel. Everything was conferred upon her from Isaac’s side so that she might be altogether suitable for him.
According to new creation we derive everything from Christ. We are not brought to Him in imperfection and nakedness, but as those who derive all from Him, and have everything in Him, and are “all of one” with Him. The knowledge of this sets our hearts free to be entirely for Him. It is the service of the Spirit to make this good in our hearts.
But there is sure to be opposition to the Spirit’s work in this direction. As in Rebecca’s case, “her brother and her mother said, Let the damsel abide with us a few days, at the least ten; after that she shall go”; so in our case every natural and worldly influence will tend to delay the decision [p. 121] of the affections for Christ. Yea, the enemy will use the best things of earth to diminish in our hearts the present attractiveness of heaven and the One who is there. The knowledge of forgiveness, and the certainty of heaven by-and-by, may be possessed without the heart being wholly secured in bridal affection for Christ in glory. Yet it is the Spirit’s blessed mission to conduct us now to Him, and a truly decided and devoted heart would refuse to be diverted from Him, or delayed in the moral journey that leads to Him.
It is possible to learn the whole system of Christian doctrine, to be faithful and consistent in one’s pathway, to teach, distribute tracts, and preach the gospel, and yet fail to respond to the present mission of the Spirit of God.
“Wilt thou go with this man?” is a blessed and yet searching question which is being raised as distinctly today with the saints of God as it was with Rebecca. It is a question with every one of us here, whether we are content to settle down with the assurance of divine grace and blessing, and into a regular kind of religious life on earth, or whether we respond with whole-hearted affection to the Spirit whose mission it is to conduct us now to Christ in glory.
The Spirit is not an influence which controls us in an indefinite way. He is a divine Person who has a definite mission to lead us outside everything here to Christ. The question, “Wilt thou go with this man?” is thus a very present and practical test for our hearts. We are called upon to decide whether self, the world, service, etc., are to be the present goal for our hearts, or CHRIST. Rebecca was prepared to leave everything to go to the one who was on the other side of the desert. Are we prepared to say, as she did, “I will go”?
There is no lack of power to carry us thus in spirit to the One who is the Son of the Father’s love if we have affection and decision of heart to go. The Spirit’s power waits upon [p. 122] us to carry us along in that moral journey to which His own blessed ministry of Christ has incited us. Rebecca “rode upon the camels, and followed the man”. Not only did she speak with her lips, but her whole course of life was at once changed, and became the witness to her heart’s decision. Many are found to express a certain amount of desire after Christ which has little practical result. There must be decision of heart which makes us willing to be carried by the Spirit’s power away from our own things. We cannot cling in our hearts to things here without being detained from pressing on after Christ.
In Philippians 3 we find a man wholly decided for Christ. Many things had been gain to him as a religious man on earth, but he counted them “loss for Christ”. Yea, he counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord. The Spirit’s power was carrying him along in a course of which Christ in glory was the goal. And he not only had the Spirit’s object before him, but he was seeking to reach that object by the Spirit’s way. Of the servant in Genesis 24 it is said that he “took Rebecca and went his way”. Many fail to reach Christ because they do not follow the man — they do not go the Spirit’s way. They are busy in the endeavour to reach Christ by way of religious flesh. Nothing attracts them unless they can attach it to themselves as men and women in the flesh. If they can be more earnest or useful in service, or more holy in life, they find satisfaction in it, without always detecting that this is still self. It may be pious self, but pious self is not CHRIST.
The Spirit’s way is by the cross. He leads the soul into the recognition of what has been effected by the cross of Christ. Man in the flesh is under death. He may be wise, prudent, mighty, noble, or pious, but he is under death. The cross is the witness of this. Man in the flesh has no place with God; he has been removed in holy judgment in [p. 123] the death of Christ: The Spirit leads us by this road. He brings the cross experimentally into our souls, and thus puts us into accord with the mind of God. That is, the one who travels by the Spirit’s way is brought to say experimentally, “I am crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2: 20).
The Spirit can only lead in one direction. Man in the flesh is of no account with Him, and Christ is everything. If we follow, we shall find ourselves carried away from all that we are, as being caused to realise its utter worthlessness before God and rejection by Him. But we shall be brought into the blessed apprehension of CHRIST, and made to know Him as the gain of our hearts. We shall be moved morally away from that which is defective at every point, and we shall acquire perfection in having CHRIST for our gain. Thus our hearts, in growing acquaintance with His deep perfections, will be formed in bridal affection and in moral correspondence with Himself.
Once more I ask in closing, Are we prepared to say, “I will go”? May God by His Spirit graciously give us all more decision for Christ.