Hosea 10:1; Judges 9:8-15; John 15:8, 16:2; 2 Corinthians 8:1-9
We trust this meeting is going to be a business meeting. We trust some of our young brothers and sisters may do definite business this evening with the Lord in their souls. When we first are converted we often rest content with the blessings we have received. Then there comes a moment in our history, when we hear the Lord saying in a far higher and spiritual sense than that in which Solomon used the word, “My son, give me thine heart” (Prov. 23:26); or “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23). That is why I read the last Scripture, where we are told that the Macedonian believers “FIRST gave their own selves to the Lord, and to us by the will of God.” There can be no successful Christian life till this point is reached. Has it been reached in your history, dear young believer? If not, may it be reached even now by God’s grace.
I remember meeting a young Christian. He was thinking of answering to the Lord’s desire in the remembrance of Himself in the Lord’s supper. He kept back for a long time. In talking it over he said to me, “I have not yet made up my mind.” I replied, “My dear young friend, it is not a question of making up your mind, it is a matter of making up your heart.” When we give ourselves to the Lord, He has got everything we have, and this is His right “Ye are brought with a price therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:20).
You, young Christians, are in a very important stage in your life. The most of it lies before you. What are you going to do with it? Is it to be self or Christ—self-centred or Christ-centred? If the former, however successful you may be in the eyes of the world, you may be able to bequeath a fortune, houses, lands, stocks and shares; if that is all your life it will have been a ghastly blunder; but if you live for Christ, for God, for eternity, you will be wise indeed.
There is a well-known story of D.L.Moody, the great American evangelist. In the early stage of his career he was asked after a gospel meeting if he had got any converts. He replied, “I got two and a half.” The remark was said, “I suppose, Mr. Moody, two grown-ups and one child have confessed the Lord.” “No,” replied Mr. Moody, “I mean two children and one grown-up. The grown-up has only half his life left before him. I only call him a half. These two children have their whole lives before them, and I call them two.”
There is a good deal of common sense in the way Mr. Moody looked at things. And so, we look at you young folks with real solicitude, and wonder how you will shape your lives. You cannot shape them aright but in the power of God’s Holy Spirit.
The passage we read from Hosea 10:1 is a striking warning against a self-centred life. “Israel is an empty vine, he brings forth fruit to himself.” What would you think of a vine that grew grapes, and then devoured its own fruit? What would you think of a vineyard with ten thousand vines in it, and when the owner comes for the fruit which is his due, he finds these ten thousand vines have been busy devouring their own grapes? The only thing to do with such a vineyard is to destroy it. Its only usefulness is fruit-bearing. Its wood is worthless. It cannot furnish even a pin to hang a vessel thereon (Ezek. 15:3).
Here we have graphically portrayed in parable a self-centred life. A self-centred life, a life that turns everything to self-aggrandisement, self-comfort, in short that is all for self, is from the Christian standpoint a life of shame and disaster. Many alas! think if they give a little of their spare time and money to the Lord that they are good Christians. That is not sufficient. “They first gave themselves to the Lord,” says our text. I read a very interesting story about a very rich oil corporation. They wanted an agent in China, who should be a complete master of the very difficult Chinese language, a man of strong personality. They were told of the very man they wanted, a gifted missionary in China, who was receiving a stipend just enough to meet bare necessities, to keep body and soul together. An official was deputed to go to China and secure his services, if possible. He was authorised to offer him a salary of £2,000 a year. If he refused, he was to offer him £3,000 a year. If that were refused, £4,000 a year was to be offered. And if he refused such a princely salary, he was to be asked to state his own terms—to secure his services at any price.
To his astonishment the missionary refused the dazzling offer. He was asked his reason for so doing: “Look at the princely salary. You can name your own figure. Why don’t you accept the offer?”
The missionary gave a wonderful reply. He said, “You are offering me a small job with a big salary. I am engaged on a big job with a small salary. My eye is on the JOB and not on the salary. I am not going to sell oil when I have the wonderful privilege of winning souls for Christ.”
Moses acted something like this. In the providence of God he was adopted as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. By an ordinance of Pharaoh the male children of the Israelites were to be cast into the river Nile, and be destroyed. God foreseeing everything, actually raised up the daughter of the very man, who made the decree, to be the preserver of the infant Moses. It was a brilliant position for him. He had his feet, as it were, on the very threshold of the throne of Egypt, the world’s mightiest kingdom at that time.
What did Moses do when he came to years? common sense would have said, Look here, Moses, providence has put you in a remarkable place. Your position is brilliant. Use it for yourself to your own advantage. Make a name for yourself. It was all in his power. The ball was at his feet.
What did Moses do? Truly wise was he. Profoundly foolish if he had chosen the path of mere earthly fame again. We read that he esteemed “the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt” (Heb. 11:26). He threw in his lot with his despised downtrodden countrymen. He left behind him a grand record we may all well emulate.
Jotham’s parable is the first parable in the Bible. The olive, the fig, the vine trees are all offered kingship over the trees. Each one said, “Should I leave?” To give up fruitfulness in order to take a brilliant position was not really addition, it was subtraction of a very serious nature—it was giving up their true purpose in life, the only reason for their existence. “Should I leave?” Let these echo again and again in your memory. I know Christian men, who could make a great name for themselves in this world, who might leave fortunes, if they choose, or secure titles and fame, but who are content to walk humbly with God’s people, and who in the words of Scripture, “Esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.” Are they wise? Are you?
We come now to John 15. There it is a question of fruit-bearing. There is one necessity for us if we are to bear fruit for God in our lives—we must abide in Christ. “Without Me,” said our Lord, “ye can do nothing” (v. 5). We read, “Herein is My Father glorified that ye bear much fruit” (v. 8). It does not say “fruit,” but “MUCH fruit.”
Is my life fruitful? Is yours? If not, we are missing what life really is. Are we content with fruit, or do we seek the Father’s glory in seeking to furnish “MUCH fruit?”
The young men in the family of God as presented in 1 John 2:14-17 had got a fair distance on the right road. They were strong. They had overcome the wicked one. The word of God abode in them. It was not that they had gained a lot of head knowledge of the Scriptures, desirable as that is as far as it goes, said the apostle, “The word of God abides in you” (1 John 2:14). They had come under the power of the word of God. It affected their conduct. It gripped their lives.
And yet, and yet, they were in danger. There comes the solemn warning, “Love not the world, neither the things in the world.” I remember how these words came in startling power to my soul. They were like a veritable thunder clap. I have known strong young men in the family of God tempted by the world’s applause, its fame and gain, and succumb and oh! what a failure there ensued. How sad are the words, “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world” (2 Tim. 4:10). And we hear nothing more about him. That is the tragedy of it. In the same scripture how the word of Paul stands in vivid contrast, “I have fought a good fight … I have kept the faith” (v. 7).
How shall we end? Nay, young believer, how shall you begin? Your life is before you. What will you make of it?
We earnestly desire a right start for you. We are anxious that you should go on to an intelligent appreciation of the whole truth of God, the truth of the church, the truth of Christ as Head of the body, and we as members of Him and of each other, the truth of His second coming, but unless we begin aright, we cannot rightly go on to these grand truths.
Let me close with a magnificent verse:“For the love of Christ constrains us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all; then were all dead: and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves, but to Him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:14-15). We pick out two phrases from our text—
“Not… to ourselves”
but
“Unto HIM.”
Which shall it be, “Unto ourselves,” or “Unto HIM?” Let these words burn themselves into the hearts of the young men and women here tonight. If you live to yourselves, you will assuredly be disappointed. You will lose a golden opportunity. You will simply put your teeth into the dust-filled apples of Sodom at the Dead Sea. “The world passes away, and the lust thereof.” The price is not good enough. It does not last. A worldly Christian is a pitiable object.
But live to Him, who died for us and rose again, how great and eternal is the gain and how great is the present joy.
If as a result of this week’s meetings we should ever happen to know that some of you young people have been stirred up by the Spirit of God to hand yourselves over to the Lord, spirit, soul and body, and to Jive for Him and His interests and under His guidance, these meetings will have been worth while. May it be so for Christ’s name’s sake. Amen.