Notes Of An Address By Mr. S. J. Hill

by N/A | Category: General | Nov 1943

"If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 15:7). A certain condition is laid down with almost unlimited promise Here is what the life of a believer should be abiding in Him and His words abiding in us. It is like the relationship between prayer and the word of God His word abiding in us supplies the channel of His blessing which is essential in the Christian life. We look up and receive. Railway trucks go to the colliery empty and come back loaded they go where coal or other commodity is to be obtained. Here we have the position of the believer, like an empty truck he lays himself out and God supplies the need. The Lord Jesus might have seen a vine when He left that place and such would give Him a topic for His speech. "I am the true Vine." You of yourself can produce nothing. I have the life. "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you," and so on; we have here the intimate relationship between the word of God and prayer; there is the asking and the receiving. John 15. has a particular reference to the believer. The vine is a simple picture shewing that we must get down to the essentials. It is right to come to meetings, but one may come and starve, one may be as an empty shell. Don't rest upon meetings, we must have direct daily abiding in Him and His words in us if we are to succeed spiritually.

In Acts 20.30 the Apostle, speaking to leading men of the assembly, tells them of the dangers ahead, of troublous times to come, but, he says, "I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace." Does this only apply to guides? It is necessary to every believer. We may be in different circumstances, but we have the same resources, " God and the word of His grace." Not God apart from the word of His grace, but God and the word of His grace. This finds its expression in prayer. Do not imagine that God is not equal to the times we are living in. He is not dead in the twentieth century. The times may change, we change also, but the word still remains, "I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace." Our life should consist of true things such as prayer. God is nothing to the man who does not pray. Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, so that undoubtedly the man who does not pray does not reach God. God is no good to him in that sense. The Apostle means, get down on your knees in prayer to God.

"Behold he prayeth," is a sure sign. "In the morning will I order my prayer unto Thee, and will keep watch" (Psalm 5.8). The prayerless are also the godless, but he that prays reaches God. Here is the true attitude, and if we rightly pray we shall open our mouths and ears at the same time. The man who really prays really hears. God is not a dumb God. "He that formed the ear shall He not hear?" The Corinthians at one time worshipped dumb idols (1 Corinthians i2. 2), but is it so with us? It is a terrible thing when a man prays and God does not answer him. Saul cried unto God, but received no answer. He tried several ways to reach God, but had to confess that he got no answer. God had left him. 'Tis an appalling condition, to be without God and without hope in the world. A railway h~ an up and a down line, so we who know God have an up line to God and a down line to man. Keep clear the up and the down communion with God; it is the whole life of the believer. "I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace." The believer has got a mouth and an ear, are we using our mouths and do we use our ears? Isaiah says, "Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint" (Isaiah 40.30, 31). What is waiting up6n the LORD? Is it in the cry, "Lord have mercy upon us?" Prayer is not solely proffering requests, but to wait on the Lord we must put ourselves in the attitude to receive. Read Psalm 28.1. Here the parallel is very remarkable. How wonderful! "My Rock, be not Thou deaf unto me: lest, if Thou be silent." Do not close Thy mouth lest I become like them that go down into the pit. We have got. eyes, ears and a mouth; we can talk to God and He to us, and that is the whole life of a believer. Oh that we might increasingly think of God in that way! We need to hear God's voice and should not be content merely to pray, but as we speak expect to hear some words from Him, lest our prayers become mechanical. There are such things as praying machines which satisfy man, but not God. God speaks through His words and we can only hear when we are in that quiet listening attitude. We need quietness of spirit in waiting upon God.

Some people do not always see, some do not always hear, but it is an awful thing when God is deaf to a man, that man is as one dead while he lives. When God spoke to Moses concerning His Tabernacle He told him exactly how to make the different parts, the boards for the house and the coverings, and, "Thou shalt make a mercyseat" (Exodus 25.17) And there I will meet with thee and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat It was there Moses heard. God speaking and there held communion with God Moses was not blindly depending on his own thoughts and ideas but he heard God speaking. It was that voice of which it is said in Hebrews 4 12 "For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart." It is something to believe that the Bible is the word of God. Many people believe that God has spoken, but do not believe that He speaks. The word of God is living and active, and it is still speaking by the Spirit of God to the hearts of men. It is a wonderful word and can perform the most delicate operations; it can go where no human instrument can go, it can even divide the soul from the spirit which is a very fine operation. "Both joints and marrow "-this might be taken figuratively, marrow is inward life of the bones by which the bones are nourished. Joints suggest actions. What actions find strength in God and what in ourselves? There is a secret motive that prompts our thoughts. Are we prompted by the word of God? This is a solemn question. Having in view the searching power of God's word we have a great High Priest, Jesus the Son of God, so let us hold fast our confession (Hebrews 4.14-16). Those under the power of God's word and such as receive Him have a sure resource at the throne of grace. Thither we can draw near at all times and as we speak to God He will speak to us. Let us therefore ever come in that spirit knowing that God has got an ear, so we speak, He has got a mouth; so we hear. "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you." The Lord does not give a blank cheque to fill in. It is the one who truly abides in Him, and who also has the Lord Jesus' words abiding within, who is truly in submission to the will of God. True Christian life consists of looking up to God in the attitude that as we speak to Him so He will speak to us. Let us ever cultivate the knowledge that God has got an ear and He has got a mouth.

N/A | Nov 1943
General