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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 emphasizes that the gospel reveals God's righteousness and the means by which He accepts the ungodly as righteous. He points out that just as divine righteousness is essential, so is divine wisdom, which is only known through the Holy Spirit. The failure to recognize the insufficiency of human wisdom alongside human righteousness has led to disastrous consequences, particularly in understanding divine righteousness. Murray argues that preaching should be empowered by the Holy Spirit to truly lead believers into fellowship with God. He calls for a restoration of the truth that the Holy Spirit's teaching is as vital as Christ's forgiveness, suggesting this could lead to a significant spiritual revival.
Scriptures
Divine Wisdom as Absolute as Divine Righteousness
The gospel was a revelation of the righteousness of God, and revealed the way in which he himself was righteous, and could righteously accept the ungodly as righteous too. The Corinthians were a people with whom wisdom was everything. In the epistle to them Paul shows that just as absolute as was the need and provision of divine righteousness was the need of divine wisdom. As no man knoweth the things of God save the Spirit of God, so we receive the Spirit of God so that we may know the things that are freely given of God. The preaching of the utter insufficiency of man’s righteousness has not been accompanied, as it should have been, by the preaching of the utter insufficiency of his wisdom. The consequences have been most disastrous. And nothing has suffered more from it than just the doctrine of the divine righteousness. Too often preached not in the power of the Holy Spirit but of human wisdom, it has not been the power of God unto salvation, or had not led the believer into the close and full fellowship with God it was meant to. The restoration of the truth of the teaching of the Holy Spirit being as indispensable as the forgiveness through Christ’s blood would indeed bring us a Second Reformation, a New Pentecost. (Excerpted from The Coming Revival, by Andrew Murray , pg. 35).
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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.