Victorious Faith
(No. 2757)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, DECEMBER 15, 1901.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
AUGUST 24, 1879.
"For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the
victory that overcomes the world– our faith. Who is he that overcomes
the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" 1 John
5:4,5.
WHAT is this "world" that we have to overcome? Did not God make the
world and did He not see "everything that He had made and, behold, it
was very good"? Yes, He did. But after sin entered this world, men came
under its power and, now, by "the world" is meant all mankind who
remain under the power of sin and are enemies of God. "The world" means
the whole corrupt mass of human society out of which God has taken a
people whom He has chosen for Himself, whom He quickens by His Divine
Spirit and whose business it is to overcome the world. They will find
that the world– the power of evil–will war against them and they also
must war against it! And the issue of the battle must not long be
doubtful. There remains for us only one of two courses–either the
world must overcome us and we must yield to it–or else we must
overcome the world and cause it to submit to us.
The Apostle helps us to understand what he means by "the world" by what
he says in the third verse. "This is the love of God, that we keep His
commandments. And His commandments are not grievous." Now, anything
which makes us think that God's will is grievous is of the spirit of
the world, against which we have to fight. If, for instance, we are
tempted to think that the restrictions of God's Law–His commandments
and precepts are too stringent, it is the spirit of the world which
tempts us to think so, for, "His commandments are not grievous" to
those who truly love Him. It is only to the rebellious world that the
restrictions of God appear to be too stringent, or that the commands of
Christ become burdensome. If we are suffering pain or poverty, or
whatever form of trial we may be called to endure, if we are tempted to
say, "God is dealing harshly with us, He is unkind to us," that, also,
is manifesting the spirit of the world against which we are to contend
until we conquer it.
For God's wil1 is always right and if we really love Him, we shall
acknowledge that it is right and though, for a while, we may have to
fight against the spirit of rebellion, yet if we are, indeed, God's
children, we must get the mastery over that spirit of evil and, so, the
will of God, even when it involves pain, weakness, shame, or death,
itself, shall still be perfectly agreeable to us because it is the will
of God! We have not completely conquered the spirit of the world until
we can truthfully say that the commandments of God, so far from being
grievous to us, are acceptable simply because they come from Him.
Now I propose, as God shall help me, first, to speak of the conquest
itself. Then, of the conquering nature. "Whatever is born of God
overcomes the world." And, thirdly, of the conquering weapon. "This is
the victory that overcomes the world–our faith."
I. First, then, concerning THE CONQUEST ITSELF. What is it to overcome
the world?
Certainly it is not to go about the world blustering and bullying
everybody until they all lie prostrate at our feet! If we could
accomplish such a feat as that, the world would, in such a case, have
overcome us and we would not have conquered it. We would have displayed
a spirit and temper betokening the pride of power, the desire to rule
over others– and this love would have mastered us. Alexander the
Great, when he was master of the whole world, was the greatest slave
within it, for he was discontented even with his victories. The pride
of conquest held him in captivity by its iron chain. No, he who aims at
the highest greatness in this world may only be more greatly selfish
than the rest of mankind–and what is that but to be really little? He
is truly great who is the most unselfish! And he is the least of all
who lives for himself alone.
Neither is it overcoming the world if you try to get out of it and to
live by yourself so as never to be tempted to sin. I have seen a man on
his knees by the hour, together, reading some pious Latin book, living
in a monastery where he never spoke–he had evidently conquered his
tongue because he gave no answer to anybody who ever spoke to him. He
was reckoned, by his brother monks, to have overcome the world–but had
he really done so? Ask any soldier whether a man who slinks away in the
day of battle and hides among the baggage–and does not fight at
all–is a conqueror! That would be a very easy way of winning a
victory–just to escape from the fight–to be of no service in the
battle between good and evil, but just to hide away in your own little
snuggery over there, in the monastery, or the convent, or the
hermitage! It might be an easy way of believing that you had conquered
because you had ceased to fight–but that delusion would not make the
victory yours. No, Brothers and Sisters, you and I have to roll up our
shirtsleeves and go into the world and work like other people–we have
to mingle with our fellow men and, as the Lord God said to Adam–in the
sweat of our face have we to eat our bread.
It may be our occupation to have to add up those long columns of
figures, or to measure up those bales of goods, or to talk to our
fellow men on various matters, but, whatever our employment may be, we
have to be in the world and we have to conquer it! To be in the world,
yet not of it–as much separated from the rest of mankind as if we
belonged to an alien race–conquerors of it wherever we go, not by
getting out of it, but by mingling with the men and women in it– doing
all that is lawful and right and all that is expected that a man should
do to his fellow men, yet, all the while being conquerors over the evil
spirit of the world!
Now, having shown you what this conquest of the world is not, let us
turn to the positive side of the question and see what it is. The first
thing that is necessary with many who are seeking to overcome the world
is to cut themselves loose from the world's customs. They were born
into the world–one man has his own little world and another man has
another little world–but every man, sooner or later, finds himself in
a world of sin. There are ungodly companions with whom he is
linked–evil associations to which he is bound. There are some men who,
in their unconverted state, give themselves up entirely to the
pleasures of the world, the amusements and frivolities of what is
called, "Society." Now, if such men ever expect to overcome the world,
the very first thing they must do is to cut their old connections
altogether, to sever all the bonds which unite them to those who lead
them into sin.
Such a thing has often happened as for a man who has been the best of
company and the choicest of good fellows among worldlings, to sit down
in quietness for half an hour, and God the Holy Spirit has worked so
mightily upon his heart that he has said to himself, "What have I been
doing but playing the fool to make other fools laugh? How am I spending
my time? I must honestly say that I am doing no real good with it. What
am I making of my manhood? Here it is–well-near six feet of it and it
will soon lie in six feet of earth–what am I doing that is really
worth doing? Am I not really wasting my time? This style of living will
not do."
Ah, the blessed Spirit has begun working in the man and he has wept
before his God as he has thought over his wasted life. Further, he has,
by faith, looked to Jesus on the Cross and he has said, "You, blessed
Savior, have redeemed me, so, henceforth, I will be Yours. As I live by
You, I will live for You and for my fellow men." After arriving, by
God's Grace, at that decision, he has become a different man from what
he used to be! His old companions could not get him back to his former
haunts, however much they might try to do so. Even if he should go
there, they would not long want him with them, for he would not, any
longer, be of their way of thinking or their way of acting, for he
would be a changed man altogether.
There are many of you who would like to come to that decision, but you
never appear willing to actually decide to serve the Lord. You are
always going to do it, yet you never do it. You hesitating people are
the most unhappy folk in the whole world, for you neither get comfort
out of your present condition, nor out of that better condition after
which you sometimes aspire, but which you have not the courage to
resolutely seek after until you find it! Some men have just enough
conscience to make them miserable, but they have not enough force in it
to make them determine that things shall be altered. Their religion is
very much like the experience of certain boys who, professedly, go out
to bathe in the early morning. They put their toes into the water and
shiver all over with the cold. But the brave swimmer takes a header,
plunges right in, is soon in a fine glow and comes out praising the
delightful bath he has had! I would urge every man who is just now upon
the point of deciding–and I pray God the Holy Spirit, with His
almighty energy, to back up my urging–that he may now say–
"'Tis done–the great transaction's done, I am my Lord's and He is
mine!"
I pray that he may henceforth be a changed man, that he may forsake his
former evil ways and live wholly unto God. That is the first part of
overcoming the world–breaking loose from its bonds so that one can
say, "I am not tied down by it any longer. By God's Grace, I am a free
man in Christ Jesus."
But that emancipation is merely a beginning. Overcoming the world
consists further in maintaining that freedom. Oh, what a work is this!
It is no child's play for a man to say, "No, I will never again be the
slave that I used to be. By God's eternal Grace, I have broken off this
fetter and that, and never again shall those chains be fastened upon
me. Great God, by Your almighty love, You have loosed my bonds. I am
Your free man! I am free, indeed, and I will fight for my freedom–and
under no possible circumstances will I go back to my old slavery." Yes,
but that fight is the difficulty– and I shall have to show you that
nobody can be victorious in that fight unless he is one of a peculiar
race–those who are born of God, born from above! This is a stern
battle–when the world surrounds us everywhere–when pleasure tempts
us–when gain tries to corrupt us–when poverty assails us–when evil
company seeks to sway us–it is hard for us to come right straight out
of all our former associations and then to stay out–remaining
conquerors over the world throughout the whole of the rest of our life
and being conquerors even in death, having vanquished the world even on
our dying bed.
Part of the overcoming of the world consists in our being raised above
circumstances. Remember how the Apostle Paul had conquered the world?
He sat in prison shivering with cold but he said, "I know how to be
abased." He went, by-and-by, into the houses of some of his friends
where they gave him all that he could desire and he said, "I know how
to abound." It is not an easy thing to be such a master of the world
that the utmost poverty cannot make you miserable, yet God can give you
Grace to say, "I can be poor, but I will be upright. I can lose every
stick that I have, but I will stand fast by Jesus Christ, my Lord and
Savior. And while I have Him, I cannot be cast down."
I say that the fight against poverty is a very stern one, but the
battle against the seductions of wealth is a far sterner one. Perhaps
some of you think that you would like to fight that battle. I daresay
you would, but you do not know what you are wishing. I see many men who
are very gracious under all sorts of need–and I see many other men
who, in proportion as they grow rich in worldly things, grow poor as to
spiritual things. Very often, just in proportion as men get high in
earthly position, in that proportion they cease to do anything that is
of any particular service to anybody. I do not know what would become
of any of us if we were made peers of the realm. It is, I have no
doubt, a great trial to anybody to be so exalted, but there is scarcely
a person here who could wear a coronet and yet faithfully serve the
Lord! And probably there is not a man or a woman among us who could
endure the trial of being made a king or a queen. It needs more than a
world of Grace to overcome the world when the world makes much of you!
When God does give us piety in high places, as, blessed be His holy
name, He sometimes does, we ought to be most grateful for it, for it is
a plant that does not grow well in such a situation as that. The old
couplet is still true–
"Gold and the Gospel seldom agree, Religion always sides with poverty."
It has been so from the first and I suppose it will be so to the last.
But the true conquest of the world is to be indifferent about all such
things–to be grateful for abounding mercies and to be grateful even
for straitened circumstances. They used to say, "Philosophers can be
merry without music" and, certainly, Christians can be happy without
having their cup perpetually full. "I have learned," said the Apostle
Paul, "in whatever state I am, therewith to be content." Happy are all
they who have learned the same lesson, for it this is overcoming the
world!
Once more, dear Friends, to overcome the world is to be above its
threats and above it bribes. You working men who are Christians often
have a hard time of it, but when your work-mates mock and jeer at you,
and call you evil names, never mind them. Overcome the world by
patiently enduring all the persecution that falls to your lot. Do not
get angry and do not become downhearted. Jests break no bones and if
you had any bone broken for Christ's sake, it would be the most honored
one in your whole body! Still, you need not wish to have the friendship
of this world and you must not expect to have it, for the world does
not love God's people. Look how it served them in ages gone by–hanging
was thought to be too good for them, so it roasted them alive!
The world would have exterminated the saints if it could have done so
and, today, what does the world say of Christians? "Oh, they are either
fools or fanatics, or else they are a set of canting hypocrites." If a
man preaches the Gospel, and many are drawn to hear him, quibblers cry,
"Oh, he is an imposter!" If any Christian man is very precise and
particular, they say, "Ugh, he is one of the sniveling Puritans!" They
never know anything bad enough to say of genuine Christians. They do
not like us! It were a pity if they should, for they did not like our
Master, and they do not like our Father.
If we will consent to hide our doctrines, or to daub them over with the
philosophical luminous paint of the preterit period, they will put up
with us. But if we bring out pure Gospel Truth, straightway they will
be down upon us!
Yet there are some of God's people that the world does love when they
do the world a good turn. If their love to man leads them to a high
philanthropy and if the world can get anything out of them, it does not
mind loving them. It has a cupboard love even to saints–and if there
is any profit to be made out of them, the world will love them, though
not their saintship! They like Mr. So-and-So as a politician, but when
it comes to his religion, they say, "That is his weak point." They do
not care to interfere with that. They admire another man because of his
care for the poor–the widow and the fatherless–but they hate the
Doctrine of the Cross which he delights to preach and which is to him
the very joy of his heart.
On the other hand, when the world cannot frighten us by frowns, it
often tries to woo us by smiles. "Oh," it cries to us, "you really are
too righteous, you are too good. You need not be so precise–come just
a little way with us–yield only an inch, that is all we ask." No,
Brothers and Sisters, yield no inches for all the smiles on this
Jezebel's painted face! But stand out just as boldly against her
blandishments as against her thunderbolts. Care nothing for her opinion
or her action either way, for, if you do, you will not have overcome
the world. God help us, by His gracious Spirit, to be conquerors in
that sense!
To overcome the world, further, means to be above the influence of the
world's example. As I said before, we have, each one of us, our own
little world and we all are, to a certain degree, subject to the
influences of those who surround us. The young man in business who
begins as a Christian is too often influenced by the pernicious maxims
and customs of the trade with which he is connected. Men mingle in
society and each one, to some extent, affects the others. How often is
a pious child grievously affected by an ungodly parent! How frequently
a gracious servant is ill-affected by an ungodly master or mistress!
But if you really overcome the world, you will live above its
influence. You will be like one who is obliged to go where the air is
foul and disease is rife, but who has such a healthy constitution that
he does not catch the disease and is not polluted by the impurity.
There is no seed-plot within him for the disease to grow upon. Blessed
is that man who is himself an example to his fellow men–who does not
so much come under the influence of others as cast his own influence
over others. God make all of you, Beloved, such true leaders of mankind
in the right direction because you have, yourselves, overcome the
world!
If you want to see the portrait of a man who overcame the world, look
at Abraham. He was at home with his father in Haran and God said to
him, "Come forth"–and away he went, with Sarah, and Lot, and their
flocks and herds! The well-watered plain of Jordan lay before him and
he might have settled in it, as Lot did, but it did not tempt him–he
dwelt alone with his flocks and his herds, where God had bid him go.
The king of Sodom and Abraham's nephew, Lot, were carried away captive
and, for the sake of Lot, Abraham went with a band of men, smote the
allied kings and delivered the prisoners. The king of Sodom said to
him, "Give me the persons and take the goods to yourself." Now,
according to the rules of war, the spoil were all Abraham's, but, oh,
how grandly did he behave! He was not going to be conquered by the
world, so he said to the king of Sodom, "I will not take from a thread
even to a shoelace. I will not take anything that is yours, lest you
should say, I have made Abram rich"–which was as much as saying, "I
have a right to it if I wish to take it, but I waive my rights. I act
from higher motives than the ordinary rules of men can supply–the Lord
Jehovah is my Helper and Provider and I live upon what He gives me. He
can make me rich without the help of the king ofSodom, so take your
goods and go."
See also how nobly he overcame the world on that memorable day when God
said, "I will now see whether Abraham does really love Me best of all.
He has one boy–the child of his old age–and I will tell him to offer
him up in sacrifice." And grandly did the Patriarch, in that fiery
trial, overcome the world, for Isaac was, practically, all the world to
him on that day when he unsheathed the knife and proved that his love
to God was superior to everything else! And this is the kind of
conquest to which you, Beloved, are also called. May God grant that you
may be well equipped for it and be truly victorious in it!
II. Now, secondly, I think you will be prepared, after my giving this
explanation of what it is to overcome the world, to hear about THE
CONQUERING NATURE. "Whatever is born of God overcomes the world"
Do you all know what it is to be born of God? I do not think I can tell
you, in so many words, exactly what it is, though I know for myself. It
is not simply to be improved and reformed. It is a grand thing when a
man who has been degraded, lives in a better fashion. But a cobbler
might take an old shoe and mend it, yet that would not make it a new
one. Being born of God is also more than being made anew. It includes
that, but that is not all that it includes. For God, who makes all
things, can new-make them when He pleases, yet that does not make them
to be born of Him. We all know
what it is for one person to be born of another–you were all born of
your father and of your mother–and so you became partakers of your
parents' nature. In like manner, only in a far higher sense,
regeneration is more than creation, for there is in it a kinship with
God. So, being born-again makes us something more than God's
creatures–we are God's children.
You know that blessed truth of adoption, by which God takes men and
adopts them into His family, but regeneration is a great deal more than
adoption. A man may have an adopted child, but yet it is really no
child of his. There is nothing of himself in it and he cannot put his
nature into it. But we are not only God's adopted children if we are,
indeed, born from above, we are God's newborn children! The Divine
Nature is actually put into us when we are born of God–is not that a
wonderful thing? And that miracle of mercy must be worked in all of us
who are ever to overcome the world.
For notice this, no nature but the Divine Nature will ever try to
overcome the world. By nature, we are of the world, and that which is
of the world will not fight against the world, it will not even thinkof
doing so. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." And flesh will
not fight against flesh. Our Lord Jesus said to the Jews, "You are of
your father, the devil"–and the devil will not fight against the
world, or try to overcome it, for his course is the course of this
world, he is the prince of it! But where the Divine Nature come, it
comes to fight against the world! The holy Nature of God never enters
into a man but what that man cries, "Now will I be wholly free from
sin! Now will I shake off every fetter of it." "Now," he says, under
the power of this Divine inner life, "I do scorn the thought that I,
who am born of God, should be a slave to sin–that I, who bear within
me something of the Deity–I, who am a twice-born man, begotten again
by God the everlasting Father, of whom I have become a child–I loathe
the very idea of yielding to sin." That is the kind of man to overcome
the world because of the Divine Nature within him!
For, see, the regenerated man is sure to overcome the world when he
goes to fight against it because, first, he has the Spirit of the
Father in him. Now God the Father is the world's Creator, so the world
can never be a match for its Creator! He made it and He can destroy it
whenever He pleases to do so. It is not possible that sin should
overcome God, for, as the Apostle James tells us, "God cannot be
tempted with evil, neither tempts He any man." He is by Nature
perfectly holy and when this Divine Nature is put into a man, it is
still holy and it cannot sin because it is born of God!
This new Nature is also akin to the Nature of Christ And you know how
the Second Person of the blessed Trinity– the Christ of God, dwelt
here among men and the world could never overcome Him. Men could kill
Him and they did, but they could not make Him sin. They could drive Him
from place to place, but they could not make Him angry. They could not
provoke Him to speak any word that He might afterwards regret. They
could never get anything from Him which was worthy of reproach or of
rebuke. They called all the witnesses they could to testify against
Him, but even the false witnesses could not agree, for He was "holy,
harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners." And even on the Cross
of Calvary, when they hung Him up to die, His dying pangs could extort
from Him nothing but a prayer, "Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do." And thus He conquered the world, for the Human Nature in
Him, blended with the Divine, could not be conquered by the world–it
was not possible!
Further, we become akin to the Divine Spirit by being born of God and
the Holy Spirit cannot be conquered by the world. It is He that
convinces the world of sin! It is He that shall yet win this world for
Christ! He is Omnipotent, so when the Spirit of God dwells within us,
as He does when we receive the Divine Nature, it is not possible that
He should be conquered, or that we should be conquered by the world.
Now, Brothers and Sisters, listen to these words. Do you not see that
you must overcome the world or else you will perish? But you cannot
overcome the world as you are. You must, therefore, be born-again! Your
only hope lies in your being born of God! And this, if it is to take
place, must be God's work. It is God alone who can do it, so you are
like ships on their beam-ends–you cannot "right" yourselves. Cry,
therefore, with your whole heart to God and ask Him to work this
miracle in you! "Salvation is of the Lord." He can save you. He can
take away the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of
flesh. He can breathe upon the dry bones and make them live. Yes, He,
the mysterious Father of our spirits, can create in us a new spirit
that shall be begotten of Himself and be like unto Himself–and this we
must have–or we can never overcome the world.
III. Now, thirdly, and lastly, I have to speak of THE CONQUERING WEAPON
WHICH IS USED BY THIS NEW NATURE. "This is the victory that overcomes
the world–our faith."
It never entered into my head that the most of professing Christians
would ever overcome the world. I do not think they ever will, for the
world has, to a large extent, overcome them. You may hear some of them
asking, "How far may we go in worldly amusements?" You really want to
go, do you not? Then go, for it does not matter much where such people
as you are go. "Oh, but we should like to go as far into the world as
we might!" Would you? Then my Lord's message to you is, "You must be
born-again!" It is quite evident that you have not the Nature of God in
you, for the Divine Nature in the soul makes it start back, and say,
"How far can I get away from anything that looks like wrong? I hate the
very appearance of evil."
The Christian does not deny himself this or that, merely because he
feels under an obligation to do so, or because he dreads the lash of
God's whip. No, if he could indulge his new Nature to the fullest, he
would continually swim in the sea of perfection! If he could be what he
wishes to be, he would never think a wrong thought, much less speak an
evil word. Now, the Divine Nature that is in him fights against sin–it
cannot help doing so–and it clings to that which is good and craves
after that which is right. Just as the ox longs to drink water and
stands in a pool of it on a hot day and drinks and drinks again, so
does the Christian seek to drink in the life and purity of God–not
because he is told to do so, or because some outside force operates
upon him, but because the new Nature is withinhim and he longs,
therefore, to indulge it to the fullest! And that new Nature, being the
Nature of God, longs after that which is pure, lovely and of good
report.
The instrument with which this new Nature fights against the world is
faith. And faith conquers, first, by regarding the unseen reward which
awaits us. The world comes and offers pleasure as the reward of sin.
But faith says, "There are greater pleasures to be had by abstaining
from sin." The world says, "Take this gain today." But faith says, "No,
I will put what I have out at interest–there is something infinitely
better to be had hereafter." In its beginning, faith generally works in
that way–it despises all the treasures of Egypt and values far more
the eternal rewards that Christ has laid up for it in Heaven. But do
you not see that there is a measure of selfishness there in both cases?
The sinner sins in order to be happy, as he thinks–and the newborn man
abstains from sin in order to be happy! Well, that is a good thing to
do, though the motive is not the most commendable. But there is a
measure of faith about it, for faith is looking for the future rewards,
and believes in the Heaven which God has prepared for them that love
Him.
But as faith grows, it attains to something better than that, for it
recognizes the unseen Presence which is with us. The world says, "Come
with us and go our way. We will pat you on the back and say that you
are a good fellow–and you will have a fine time if you come with us."
But faith says, "I do not trouble about how I appear in your eyes, for
there is another eye which I can see, but which you cannot see, for God
is looking at me and I am most of all concerned to be right in His
sight." Faith realizes that the newborn nature is in the Divine
Presence and thus makes God's Presence to be just as real and just as
vivid as the presence of men. And that Presence of God altogether
outweighs the presence of men–and the believing soul says to the
world, "To please you, I dare not do that which is wrong in the sight
of God, for who are you, compared with the Most High God? I will not do
wrong in order to escape your frown, for, by so doing, I should receive
the frown of God. And I must maintain my integrity before Him."
That, you see, is a higher position than the one I first mentioned, for
faith not only regards the unseen reward which awaits the Believer but
faith recognizes the unseen Presence of God and is moved by an
all-constraining desire to please
Him.
That was a very striking incident in the life of our dear Brother
Oncken, of Germany, when the burgomaster of Hamburg said to him, "I
hear, Sir, that you have been baptizing at night." "I have, Sir," he
replied, "because the law will not permit me to do it by day." "How
dare you immerse these persons?" asked the burgomaster. "I dare to do
it," answered Mr. Oncken, "because it is the Law of God" "And you have
done it in defiance of the law of the land! Now, Sir, do you see this
little finger of mine?" "Yes," replied Mr. Oncken, "I see it." "Well,
Sir, as long as that little finger lives, I will keep you down, for I
am determined to put an end to this movement." "But, Mr. Burgomaster,"
said Mr. Oncken, "not only can I see your little finger, but I can also
see a great arm which you do not see. That is the arm of the eternal
God and, as long as that arm can move, you will not be able to put me
down, for I am only doing the will of Jehovah." Years after that stormy
scene, I went to Drench in Hamburg in connection with the opening of my
Brother Oncken's Chapel, and among the notable gentlemen who helped to
honor that occasion by their presence was that very burgomaster. He
still had his little finger, but he was not there to put Mr. Oncken
down! He came to contribute to Mr. Oncken's work and to show that the
great arm of God had beaten the little finger of the burgomaster! That
kind of experience has been many times repeated in the world. The men
of the world resolve to put us down, but it cannot be done! If we were
simply of men, we might be put down–but we are of God and the Divine
Nature in us must conquer in the long run!
When faith rises still further, it feels that the soul so loves God and
so wishes to delight in Him, and becomes so closely united to God that
it takes pleasure in all that in which God takes pleasure. It is true
faith that believes that God takes pleasure in the humble actions of
poor creatures such as we are, but our faith has that confidence. It
believes God to
be a kind and tender Father, delighting in what His children do and,
therefore, faith says, "I cannot grieve Him, so, be gone from me,
sinful world! Away with your gold, and your silver, and your smiles,
and your frowns! I dare not be influenced by any of these things and so
grieve my God." And, daily, as faith grows stronger and stronger, it
tramples the world more and more under its feet and altogether abhors
it.
To the genuine Christian, Christ is life's one aim. He sets that mark
before him and shoots at it. I once saw a colonel shooting at a target.
There were two targets near each other and he made a center at one of
them. The attendant called out, "Which target was that gentleman
shooting at?" "The one on the left," was the answer. "I thought so,"
said the man, "for he hit the one on the right." There are some people
who are always shooting at the world and it seems to be their great aim
to hit it, but the Christian is always aiming at Christ–and if he has
not made the center yet, he will shoot again and again until he does,
for his great desire is that he may live for Christ, alone, and be
found in Him, not having his own righteousness "which is of the Law,
but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith,"
So, I hope you see that if faith is the conquering weapon and we intend
to be conquerors, we must become Believers in the invisible God! And in
order to exercise faith in the invisible God in Christ Jesus, we must
be born-again, for, until that new Nature comes into us, we never
believe in Christ! We may believe a great deal in ourselves. We may
believe in worldly society, in its threats, or in its bribes, but we do
not believe in Christ. But how blessed is that man who, at the last,
will be able to say, "I have faithfully served my God. I have turned
neither to the right hand nor to the left. I have not considered
myself. I have courted no man's praise, I have not sought pelf or gain.
What I had to spare, I gave to God's cause and to the poor. What I
could gather, I distributed according to the necessities of my fellow
men. I have lived for God, for Christ and for the Truth–I have not
lived for myself." The man who can truthfully say that is a saved man!
Whether you know it or not, my Friend, that is salvation–to be saved
from sin and from self–and there is no getting salvation from the
groveling meanness of selfishness except by being born-again! For self
clings to every man until he is born-again–and it is not always gone
even then. Satan spoke the truth when he said to the Lord, "Skin for
skin, yes, all that a man has will he give for his life." But he will
not be ready to part with life itself until he gets a higher life and a
better one imparted to him by the Spirit of God!
Again I say that this Truth of God throws us on our beam-ends. If we
are to be saved, we must look to God! We must seek salvation at His
hands. We must ask Him for faith and what a mercy it is that He waits
to give it! You are nothing and God will be everything to you. Get to
the end of yourself and that will be a proof that God has already begun
with you! Cease to believe in your own merits, or your own virtues. Put
away all trust in yourself and come and trust in God as He is revealed
in His Son Jesus Christ and you have received that salvation which will
keep on progressing until all sin shall be driven out of you and you
shall dwell forever where Jesus is–as unselfish as Jesus is–as pure,
as blessed, as glorious as He is! God grant this to us all, for
Christ's sake! Amen.