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Andrew Murray
Andrew Murray (1828 - 1917). South African pastor, author, and revivalist born in Graaff-Reinet, Cape Colony, to Dutch Reformed missionary parents. Sent to Scotland at 10, he studied at Aberdeen University and Utrecht, Netherlands, returning ordained in 1848. He pastored in Bloemfontein and Worcester, later moderating the Dutch Reformed Church’s Cape Synod. In 1860, he sparked a revival in the Orange Free State, preaching to thousands across racial lines despite apartheid’s rise. Murray wrote over 240 books, including Abide in Christ (1882) and With Christ in the School of Prayer, translated into dozens of languages. His emphasis on holiness, prayer, and divine healing influenced global Pentecostalism. Married to Emma Rutherford in 1856, they had eight children, four becoming missionaries. He founded theological seminaries and the Huguenot College for women. Despite chronic illness, he traveled to Europe and America, speaking at Keswick Conventions. His devotional works remain widely read, shaping Christian spirituality across denominations.
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Sermon Summary
Andrew Murray addresses the hidden sins within the church, emphasizing that many believers may be unaware of the abominations present in their hearts and lives. He draws parallels to the time of Ezekiel, where the people clung to the temple while harboring secret sins, suggesting that today's church may similarly be blind to its own formalities, lukewarmness, and self-seeking behaviors. Murray urges believers to reflect on their inner lives and consider whether their lack of humility, love, and reliance on the Spirit is grieving God. He calls for a self-examination to recognize the need for judgment to begin within the house of God.
Is There Sin in Our Own Heart That We Know Little Of?
There may be sin in God’s sanctuary that men think or know little of. The prophet was shown by God what the men did ‘in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagining.’ (Ezek 8:12) They still clung to God’s house, they called it the temple of Jehovah; they were ready to die for it as the centre and the symbol of their national religion, and yet they defiled it with their abominations. And they never dreamt how near and how terrible God’s judgment on them would be. May it not be thus with the church of our day? May it not be that the formality, and the lukewarmness and worldliness, the self-seeking and pleasure-seeking, which marks the great majority of our professing Christians, are being looked upon by God as ‘wicked abominations’ in his house, while we have very little conception of their evil? God led Ezekiel from the outer to the inner court. May it not be that the sins that are found in the hearts and lives of the more earnest and inner circle among Christians, the lack of humility and love, the trust in human wisdom and human support, the neglect of the continual leading of the Spirit and the full imitation of Christ… may it not be that these things are displeasing and grieving God to an extent that we have no conception of? Let us ask carefully whether there be not in the church, or in our own heart, much that makes it most needful that judgment begin at the house of God. (Excerpted from The Coming Revival, by Andrew Murray , pg. 43)
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Andrew Murray (1828 - 1917). South African pastor, author, and revivalist born in Graaff-Reinet, Cape Colony, to Dutch Reformed missionary parents. Sent to Scotland at 10, he studied at Aberdeen University and Utrecht, Netherlands, returning ordained in 1848. He pastored in Bloemfontein and Worcester, later moderating the Dutch Reformed Church’s Cape Synod. In 1860, he sparked a revival in the Orange Free State, preaching to thousands across racial lines despite apartheid’s rise. Murray wrote over 240 books, including Abide in Christ (1882) and With Christ in the School of Prayer, translated into dozens of languages. His emphasis on holiness, prayer, and divine healing influenced global Pentecostalism. Married to Emma Rutherford in 1856, they had eight children, four becoming missionaries. He founded theological seminaries and the Huguenot College for women. Despite chronic illness, he traveled to Europe and America, speaking at Keswick Conventions. His devotional works remain widely read, shaping Christian spirituality across denominations.