Exodus 28:15-30 And you shall make the breastplate of judgment with cunning work; after the work of the ephod you shall make it; of gold, of blue… The greatest enemy with which we have to fight is sin. This enemy meets us in many forms. But the form in which it gives us more trouble than any other is perhaps that of selfishness. This is an evil that is very hard to conquer. Suppose we are walking in the country, and meet a snake in the path; with the cane in our hand we strike it again and again, till it lies still and motionless. We leave it, and go on our way, feeling sure that we have killed the snake. But when we have finished our walk, and come back to the place where we left the snake, we find it still alive and active. Then we say to ourselves, "Snakes are hard to kill." And it is just so with selfishness. It is a very difficult thing to conquer it. If we wish to subdue it, and get the victory over it, we must be sure to have this conqueror's jewel, the grace of God. And there are three things that this jewel will lead us to do in fighting against selfishness. I. In the first place, it will lead us TO PRAY AGAINST IT. Prayer is necessary to our success in everything we do. Jesus said to His disciples, "Without Me ye can do nothing." And this is as true now as it was then. It is as true of us as it was of the disciples. And it is particularly true of the thing we are now considering. If we want to get the victory over the selfishness of our own hearts, it is especially necessary for us to pray to Jesus to help us. II. The second thing that this conqueror's jewel will lead us to do in getting the victory over selfishness is TO STRUGGLE AGAINST IT. We must not think that praying is to take the place of striving. God only helps those who strive to help themselves. Suppose that you and I have to climb up a high mountain. We kneel down at the foot of the mountain, and pray God to help us get up to the top of it. And then suppose we should sit down and wait for God to send an angel to take us in his arms and carry us up to the top of the mountain. Have we any right to expect that God would help us in that way? Not at all. We might wait all our lives, but we never should get any help. If we want to get up the mountain, we must begin to climb, and we must keep on climbing till we get to the top, and while we are doing this God will help us. No soldier ever expects to gain the victory over his enemies without a hard struggle. We have all read about the great victory which the Duke of Wellington obtained over the Emperor Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo. But he had to fight hard all day before he gained that victory. And so, if we want to get the victory over our selfishness, we must struggle hard against it. III. The third thing that this conqueror's jewel will lead us to do in getting the victory over selfishness is TO REMEMBER THE EXAMPLE OF JESUS. Jesus came down from heaven to do three things for us. The first was to fulfil God's law for us. The second was to die for our sins. The third was to show us how to live. The Bible tells us that "He left us an example that we should follow His steps." You know, when we are learning to write, our teacher sets us a copy. Then we take the word or sentence that has been written for us, letter by letter, and try to make others like them. And just in the same way the life of Jesus is set before us as our copy. We are to keep it before us, and try to make our own lives like His. Being a Christian means being like Jesus. Now it is said of Jesus that "He pleased not Himself." (R. Newton, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment with cunning work; after the work of the ephod thou shalt make it; of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine twined linen, shalt thou make it. |
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