THE MAN GOD USES – CHAPTER II – Oswald J Smith
THE MAN GOD USES
I HAVE been trying to think during these past days of the qualities that will enable God to use men in Christian service; and so far as I can discover there are at least eight that are essential. Moreover, I am absolutely convinced that any man who is willing to pay the price may be used of God regardless of talents and gifts, not perhaps to the extent of some, but certainly to the full limit of his capacity, and if not the fault is his.
Now, it may cost a good deal. God does not always reveal the whole price at once. But when we reach the place, where we are so desperately in earnest about it that we are willing to make any sacrifice, then it is that God can begin to use us.
Well do I remember how I walked up and down my room in prayer exclaiming: “Oh, God, use me, use me, no matter what the cost! Gladly will I pay any price if only I may be used of Thee.” Are you willing to pay the price?
1. The man God uses is the man who has but one great purpose in life.
A divided heart can never bring complete satisfaction. The man of mingled interests will seldom make a success of anything. If he would succeed in business he must give the major portion of his time and the best of his thought to his business. It is the man who divides his time between the office and the gambling table who fails. If his affections are divided between his wife and another woman married life is bound to end in disaster. Nor could any young man be satisfied unless he held the supreme place in the heart of the woman whom he would make his wife.
The very same is true of the man who would be used of God, only to a far greater degree. The work alone must claim his whole attention. He has no room for other things. Paul was a man of “one thing.” “This thing one I do,”8 he exclaimed. That was the secret of his success. He had a great surging passion to make known the Gospel, and he gave himself day and night to his work. And in writing to Timothy he commanded to “be diligent in these things; give thyself wholly to them.”9
The trouble is that men are interested in too many things today to be used of God. I have known college students whose interests were so divided between their studies and girl friends that their lives made no impression whatever. And let me say that no young man can be mightily used of God who is continually spending his evenings, his time and thought in the society of women.
I know of ministers who are in business on the side. Their whole time is not given to their one great work. Before I entered the ministry I purchased a vacant lot for speculative purposes, but after my ordination I sold it as quickly as possible that I might be perfectly free to give my whole thought to my work. I am not urging that you have no other interests in life. There are duties to which you are bound to give your attention. What I do insist upon is that you make them as few as possible, and above all that you consider them as secondary, thus putting God and His work first and looking upon it as your one great purpose in life.
2. The man God uses is the man who by God’s grace has removed every hindrance from his life.
Now then, you don’t need to tell me what it is that hinders God from using you. God knows and you know. You must get right with Him. It may be only a weight or it may be a definite sin, possibly your besetting sin.10Perhaps it is impurity in thought, word or deed. Possibly it is pride, jealousy, malice, covetousness, unbelief, or self in one form or another. It may be tobacco. But whatever it is it must be removed before God can use you.11 Remember, it was Achan12 who caused Israel to fail. Is there an Achan in your heart, a shelf behind the door, a sin that no one sees but God? People think you are what you appear to be; but do they really know you as you are? Dare you withdraw the veil and let them see all? (Isa. 59:1-2).
3. The man God uses is the man who has placed himself absolutely at God’s disposal. Some of us act as though we were afraid of God, afraid to let Him have full sway. God says, “If any man willeth to do His will.”13 What could the potter do if the clay refused to yield? What could the doctor do if the patient refused to trust? Of what value are insubordinate soldiers?
Well, then, are you yielded? Have you said an eternal “Yes” to God and an eternal “No” to self? Are you dedicated? Have you surrendered all? Has your will been set aside, and have you accepted His for your life? Will you go where He wants you to go, and be what He wants you to be? Are you able to sing every verse of Frances Ridley Havergal’s great consecration hymn, “Take my life?” Do you mean it? And can you say with all your heart:
” Lord, I give myself to Thee, Friends and time and earthly store;
Soul and body Thine to be–Wholly Thine for evermore.”
4. The man God uses is the man who has learned how to prevail in prayer. The men who have been greatly used of God have all been mighty in prayer. As you read their biographies you discover that the spirit of prayer predominates. Jacob exclaims: “I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me,” and hears God say: “Thou hast striven with God and with men and hast prevailed.”14 Jesus in the midst of the greatest activity and opportunity for service withdraws from the multitude and seeks a solitary place in which to pray,15 sometimes spending whole nights alone with His Father, praying with such anguish of spirit that His sweat turns to blood.16 And this is the story of every man who has been used of God. Are you willing to pay the price?
You may be marvelously gifted and equipped for the service of God, but if you have not learned how to prevail in prayer you can never expect God’s blessing on your labors. Let me urge upon each one the necessity of withdrawing to the secret place to pray the prevailing prayer, the prayer that effects its object. We must pray through and get the answer. Oh, for a return to the prayer-life of such men as Bramwell, Oxtoby, Carvasso, John Smith and Finney!
5. The man God uses is the man who is a student of the Word.
God’s Word is your weapon. If you doubt its strength what power can you have in wielding it? It is your only source of information. When the Word of God becomes your meat and drink, your daily study and a very part of yourself, then, and not until then, will you be able to use it as He intends. Do you believe that the text you proclaim is the living inspired Word of God? And are you confident that it will never return void? God cannot use a man who doubts His Word.
6. The man God uses is the man who has a vital, living message for a lost world.
You are looking forward to the foreign field. Well, what are you going to tell them? Have you a message? Why are you going?
If your mission is merely one of Social Service, Education, Political Reform, you had better leave it to the social service expert, the schoolteacher, the doctor and the reformer. If it is to substitute Western civilization along with the Christian religion for heathenism, better leave it to government agencies with their systems of uplift and reform.
Ah no! there is only one message great enough to take us from our homes of comfort, carry us across the seas, and set us down in the midst of persecution, ridicule, sacrifice and loneliness, and that is the message that “Christ died for our sins,”17 the message that ” God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life,”18the message of the Cross, Nothing less will suffice, “Go ye and preach the Gospel.” 19 The rest is the business of the state.
But what message have you for the homeland? Why are you entering the ministry? If it is merely to entertain you had better turn your work over to the theatres for they can do it better than you can. If it is to educate the people by reading religious essays, better advise them to study Carlyle, Emerson, Browning and Shakespeare. It will cut down expenses and save them the necessity of coming out in bad weather. Besides they can cultivate a taste for poetry in clubs held for that purpose. Or if it is simply to charm them by the beauty of oratory or great musical compositions, the Chautauqua 20 and concert hall will answer better.
Oh, my brother, you have a far greater work than this. The highest, most glorious, and most important of all Callings is yours. The others have their individual vocations but yours embraces all, for you deal with all classes and conditions. Nor have you any time for argument or controversy. Yours is a Message that God has commissioned you to deliver, a Message of life and death, and He will hold you responsible for your stewardship. Oh, that you might realize the greatness of your task!
We are not in the pulpit to please and entertain, nor are we to parade ourselves. “The minstrel who sings before you to show his skill will be praised for his wit, rhymes and voice, but the courier, who hurries to bring you a message, will be forgotten in the message he that brings.” Oh, my brethren, what do men think of us? Do they say: “What a great sermon!” or “What a great Christ! What a wonderful Saviour!”
Remember, we are to represent Jesus, and that means that we must be dead in earnest, for to some our message will mean death, to others life. Then let us preach as though we mean what we say. A great actor one time explained the difference between actors and ministers by saying: “You clergymen talk about real things as though they were unreal, while we actors talk about unreal things as though they were real.”
Listen, men! If you are firmly convinced that “all have sinned,” 21 that men are lost, and that Jesus Christ is the only one who can save them, and you go forth to proclaim that message, then I bid you God-speed; and let me tell you, your ministry will be glorious.
Oh, then, let me ask you again: Have you a message that the Holy Spirit honours? Does He convict of sin when you preach? Are souls saved and believers edified? Are you proclaiming man-made sermons or God-given messages? For if your message is born of the Holy Ghost you need never be ashamed. Thousands have flocked to hear it all down the centuries, and thousands will do the same again. Audiences have been held spellbound by the simple Gospel Message, and it still grips. No need to fear. Go forth then and speak, confident of His power.
7. The man God uses is the man of Faith, who expects results.
The great trouble with the majority of us is that we don’t expect anything to happen. We do not look for results. We are content to go on in the same old humdrum way, and if a soul in anguish should cry out: “What must I do to be saved?” 22 we would be dumbfounded.
I have never yet been content to see things go on in the usual quiet way. Unless something happened I felt I had failed. I have always expected the extraordinary, nor have I been disappointed.
You remember that young preacher who came to Mr. Spurgeon discouraged because he was not seeing results.
“Why, you don’t mean to tell me,” exclaimed Spurgeon, “that you expect results every time you preach, do you?”
“Well, no,” responded the young man, somewhat taken aback.
“Then that is why you don’t get them,” was the pointed reply.
I notice that when men play football they do not kick the ball at random, but they endeavour to drive it into the goal, and so with hockey. And, thank God, we too can have a goal.
I never saw a race where men ran this way and that, all over the field. They had an object in view, and they ran toward a certain point. And we too are in a race, but a race, thank God, for souls.
When a lawyer pleads a case he does not merely entertain. He is there for a verdict. And, praise God, we are out for a verdict. Nor should we be satisfied without one.
In a shooting match every man fires at a mark. Have we a mark, and do we take aim?
In the days of the Great War recruiting meetings were held, not to entertain, but to secure recruits. Apart from this result the meeting was in vain. Are we looking for recruits for our King, and do we expect some to respond? Let us have faith for definite results.
8. The man God uses is the man who works in the Anointing of the Holy Spirit.
” Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on High.” 23 They tarried. “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witness unto me.” 24 And the thought of witnessing without that power never entered their minds.
Read the biographies of God’s men and you will discover that each one sought and obtained the Enduement of Power from on High. One sermon preached in the Anointing is worth a thousand in the energy of the flesh.
This, then, is the man God uses. He has but one purpose in life. Every hindrance has been removed. He places himself absolutely at God’s disposal. He has learned how to prevail in prayer. He is a student of the Word. He has a vital, living Message for a lost world. He expects results. And he works in the Anointing of the Holy Spirit. Oh, my brethren, let us see to it that we have these eight qualifications in order that God may use us to the fullest possible extent. Then will our Ministry be glorious indeed
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8 Philippians 3:13
9 1 Timothy 4:15
10 that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us (AMP) Heb. 12:1
11 Hebrews 12:1
12 Joshua 7:1-‐25
13 John 7:17
14 Genesis 32:26-‐28
15 Mark 1:35
16 Luke 22:44
17 1 Corinthians 15:3
18 John 3:16
19 Mark 16:15
20 an adult education movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
21 Romans 3:23
22 Acts 16:30
23 Luke 24:49
24 Acts 1:8