Life, warfare and victory

Preface

HIS book has been prepared in the midst of Evangelistic work, to meet the wish often expressed to the writer — that instruction given in Bible Readings to young Converts might be made available for their more careful study and permanent use.

It is dedicated by the Author to those to whom he has preached Christ, in Great Britain as well as in America; as a token of his continued love for them and interest in their welfare : and is sent forth with the earnest prayer that the Holy Ghost may bless the study of the Scriptures it presents to them, and to all readers, for their spiritual growth and profit, and for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. To Him alone belongs all the praise for spiritual life and light, in both writer and reader, for "we are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves ; " and " the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God."

If the Spirit of God be honoured and recognized as the Teacher, the Son of God will be revealed and magnified, and God the Father will delight to bless to the reader all of His own Word that shall be found herein.

LIFE, WARFARE, AND VICTORY.

CHAPTER L

LIFE.

" He . . . Cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world." — John vi. 33.

^^^S||HE commencement of the Christian life is —

'miS^i Life : life imparted from God through Jesus

l^^^tei Christ. " As many as received Him, to

^=^'^^^=^^^'^=^ them gave He power to become the sons of

God, even to them that believe on His name; which

were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor

of the will of man, but of God " (John i. 12, 13). " This

is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only

true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent"

(John xvii. 3). "And this is the record, that God hath that hath the Son hath life ; and he that hath not the

Son of God hath not life " (i John v. 11, 12).

It is vain to expect fruit unless the seed containing the fruit in germ has been really sown, and has taken root. It would be folly to look for anything but crabapples from a crab-apple tree, if no better fruit had been

I grafted in upon its stem. So, it is useless to exhort a piety that does not exist, and fruitless to teach an unregenerate man to cultivate an unrenewed heart.

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John iii. 6\ Spiritual things may be imitated by, but cannot be produced from, the flesh. So at the very outset, in dealing with the subject of the soul's warfare, the question must be pressed home : " Have you been born again ? " The spiritual difficulties of most professing Christians commence right here. They have not started right. The Gospel has not been clearly apprehended. Sincere in their desire to be Christians, believing the truths of the Bible, and more or less instructed in theology, they have given their public assent to these truths, made open profession of faith in Christ, and continued in the performance of religious duties, waiting for an inward evidence of their divine renewal, which has never come.

Now to all such the word must necessarily be. Halt! Go no further until this question is settled. Let us not consider the duties of the Christian life — its dangers or its delights — until we have the life. That it is the will of God that we should have life, is shown by the words of our Saviour, " And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, should have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day" (John vi. 40). And that it is the will of God that those who believe should knoiv that they have everlasting life — is as clearly shown by the words, " These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God ; that yc may knoiv that ye have eternal life" (i John v. 13). So from the

LIFE. 5

Word of God itself it is made manifest, and would seem to go without saying, that I must know myself as a child of God, before I shall live as a child of God. Educating me to live like a child of God will not make me a child of God. It will only be an imitation, and must necessarily result in failure. The sooner those who are engaged in this imitation of Christian life in outward conduct, without real life in their souls, are brought to the knowledge of this, and realize that all in the past has been, and that all in the future will be, failure, upon that line — the sooner will their souls be brought to Him who is the Saviour of real sinners, helpless to save themselves.

There are many illustrations in the Bible of the failure of all imitations of the life of faith. Saul the son of Kish, Israel's first king, forms a notable example. He was continually blundering in trying to act like a man of faith, but without possessing real faith. He evidently knew the Bible of his day ; and had been instructed from it by Samuel, of God's dealings with Israel under Moses, Joshua, and the Judges (i Sam. xii.) So in his difficulties he tries to do what men of God had done before him — but never in the same spirit, or with the same results. In i Sam. xiii. 12 the Philistines are surrounding him. He evidently remembers Samuel's offering sacrifice and making prayer to God in a similar situation, as recorded in the seventh chapter ; and although commanded by God in such circumstances to wait for the prophet, who would reveal God's will — he imitated Samuel, and offered sacrifice and made prayer. It was a mere outward form, an act of disobedience; of which, if he had been a man of faith he could not have been guilty ; and disaster attended it. In i Sam. xiv. 18, remembering what the presence of the ark had been with Joshua at Jericho, he hastily commands the Priest to bring the ark : in the 19th verse, he as hastily leaves Ark, Priest, and all^ and goes out to the battle without any message from God ; and in the 24th verse blunders into another imitation of Joshua at Gibeon^ by forbidding the people to eat food that day. He was disobeyed by his own son, and caused the people to sin by their eating blood. In the 35th verse, in imitation of Gideon, he makes an altar ; but no answer from God comes at this altar. In the 39th verse, in imitation of Jephthah, he vows that Jonathan his son shall die ; but the people will not allow Jonathan to be put to death, and the vow is broken. In the 41st verse, without command from God, he again imitates Joshua — who, by command of God, detected Achan by the lot — in ordering the lot between himself and Jonathan. So he blundered along, at times showing much courage and sincerity of purpose ; yet. an Esau-man, a fine specimen of the flesh, but without the faith of the living God to guide him. His life of many failures closes with the creeping through the hut of the Witch of Endor to a self-inflicted death upon the battle-field of Gilboa. "Without faith it is impossible to please Him ; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him" (Heb. xi. 6).

Saul was anointed and instructed by a prophet of God, and was specially loved and prayed for by that prophet. He prayed, and prophesied, and engaged in the service of God ; and at times with enthusiasm and courage. Yet, he was a man without faith, and did not please God. " So then they that are in the flesh cannot

LIFE, 5

please God " (Rom. viii. 8). These are solemn words ; and the example given is a solemn illustration of them.

Most prayerfully and earnestly would the writer entreat all who may read these words to carefully ponder the testimony of God's Word in the chapter following, as to how we are born again, and what the evidences are that this New Birth has been experienced.

Chapter II

DEATH BEFORE LIFE. ^ "From death to life."— John v. 24 ; i John iii. 14.

ILL the reader open his or her Bible at the Epistle to the Galatians, and carefully study some of the evidences there in a simple manner presented, as to how these Galatian Christians, to whom Paul had preached the Gospel, had been born again and made children of God. First, notice the third chapter, first and second verses. Four personalities are brought out : Jesus Christ, crucified ; the Spirit of God imparted ; Paul, the preacher o Christ ; foolish Galatians, who had believed and rejoiced in believing, but were now being bewitched by legalists, who were getting their attention off from Christ. The point of connection between the Galatians and the truth preached, by which they received the Spirit, is emphasized in the simple words, " THE HEARING OF FAITH." Will the reader pause here, and ask what this means. . Give a definition of it to your own mind without looking down the page. Put your hand over what follows until you think for yourself what the words " the heai'hig of faith " mean.

You have probably arrived at the same definition that would be ordinarily given — that it is, just believing what you hear. Precisely so. It is the accepting as facts the statements of God's Word about oneself as a sinner, and about Christ as my Saviour. " Faith cometh by hearing ; and hearing by the Word of God'' (Rom. X. 17). This is a very important verse. Does the reader see its meaning ? Faith does not come by feeling, but by hearing; and that hearing is not to be the hearing of man, be he the wisest and most eloquent that ever lived, but the hearing of the Word of God. The man is of use only as he preaches the Word, as did Paul at Galatia ; the essence of the Word being now, as then, JESUS CHRIST crucified. Faith is not a feeling ; and feeling is not faith, and is not to be waited for before exercising faith. Faith is the trust of the mind or heart in a person, and is ordinarily brought into exercise by believing the words of that person. So John V. 24, "He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent Me." (See also i Peter i. 25 ; John i. 12 ; James i. J 8.) Following on now in Galatians, the attention of the reader is called to the opening up of the manner in which Paul preached Christ crucified, as developed from the loth to 14th verses, inclusive, of the third chapter.

Some time ago, at an inquiry meeting, the writer met an inquirer who was brought into the light by a conversation over these verses ; and he has often since used that conversation, with the illustration in it elaborated to meet special difficulties, to help others to apprehend Christ. Trusting that the use of it now may be owned of God to the same end, he proposes to produce it here. The man was an intelligent mechanic

DEATH BEFORE LIFE. 9

in middle life. When asked if he was saved, his reply was, " No, I am not. I have been attending Gospel meetings for four weeks, and have been awakened to see that I am all wrong ; but I cannot get light. I do not know how to become a Christian. I want to be saved, and am willing to do anything ; but I do not know what to do." " Well, my friend," was the reply, " it is a great privilege to meet one in your state of mind, anxious about salvation, willing to be taught, and willing to yield to God. Now let us look for light where God has placed it — in His own Word. Will you read to me this verse (Gal. iii. 10)." A Bible open at the passage was placed in his hand ; and he read,

" For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse : for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them '

He looked a little surprised that such a verse should be pointed out to him as showing the way of salvation. Like all w^ho seek salvation through Jesus Christ, he had first to see that he was lost^ and utterly lost^ before he could be saved \ he had to learn that it is really and truly out of death that we are brought into life.

It is resurrection power that saves us ; and resurrection power can only be shown where there is real death. So in the case of Lazarus, wherein the Son of God was to be glorified. Jesus tarried four days until Lazarus was dead ; not sick merely, but dead. Then He came to Bethany ; and resurrection power had the opportunity of manifestation. The dead one was made alive ; the Son of God was glorified ; and joy and gladness filled the home. Reader, is the blessing lo LIFE, WARFARE, ANFj VICTORY.

delayed in coming to you, because the Lord is waiting for you to see yourself dead : not sick merely with sin, but dead — condemned already under the curse of the broken law and without a spark of the life of God in your soul ? There is one of two conditions for all : DEAD, or ALIVE. There is no middle ground.

Some questions came up on Gal. iii. lo, with the man in the Inquiry Room. Let us listen to them :

" What does ' works of the law ' mean ? "

"Trying to keep the commandments of God."

" Well, is a man cursed for trying to do that ? "

" No ; but if he has chosen that as the way of salvation, and fails in keeping the commandments, then he is under the curse."

" What is the curse of the law? "

" Death, the penalty for disobedience. As in Ezek. xviii. 4, * The soul that sinneth it shall die ; ' and Rom. V. 12, 'Death by sin;' and Rom. vi. 23, ^The wages of sin is death.' "

" Is every man who has not kept God's commandments under that penalty ? "

" What does the verse say ? "

" Well, it reads thus :

" * Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.' "

"Well, my friend, have you continued doing all things commanded you by God ? "

" No, I have not ; and I am therefore under the curse. What can I do ? "

" Well, what can you do \ Supposing you should make a solemn vow to-night that you never, as long as you

DEATH BEFORE LIFE.

II lived, would disobey God again ; but that from this time forward you would faithfully observe all His commandments, and be perfectly pure in thought, deed, and life, before Him. Do you think you could keep such a vow, and never do a single wrong thing again?"

" No," said the man, sadly ; " I don't think I could."

" No ; and I don't think you could, either. And I am not going to ask you to make any such vow. But, supposing you did make it and did fulfil it, -would a perfect life in the future atone for the disobedience of the past, and satisfy the penalty already due ? ''

" No, I don't think it would. If I owe my grocer twenty dollars on last year's account, my paying for all I get this year won't pay that."

"Well, my friend, your condition is certainly a solemn one. You confess that you have sinned ; and the penalty for sin is death. It is not that you are going to be lost ; but you are lost. Our Saviour teaches this in John iii. i8, where He says, ' He that believeth not is condemned already' Do you see your position ? "

" Yes, I do. I am under the curse. What must I do to be saved ? "

" Under the Curse." Oh, solemn word !

Lost soul, its truth be heeding : From justice comes the dread award ;

For mercy be thou pleading.

••Under THE Curse." It must be so;

If sin I have been sharing : God's wrath for sin I needs must know.

The law must be unsparing.

*' Under the Curse." A holy God Must give a law that's holy ;

And justly then must keep His word, And punish sin most fully.

" Under the Curse." Oh, fearful doom !

Oh, awful day that 's nearing, When God shall take the judgment throne, In Christ as Judge appearing.

Chapter III. Life Imparted

" I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." — JOHN x. lo.

E continue the record of the conversation with

the man in the Inquiry Room.

" The first thing in salvation must be to

get deliverance from the curse of the law. " You can have no peace while uncertain as to your standing before God's law, in relation to the condemnation you know to be justly your due. If there is the shadow of the curse hanging over you, you cannot pray to God with any sense of acceptance or with any faith. You cannot really love God while expecting His wrath ; and you cannot serve God acceptably until you love Him. On the other hand, God cannot bestow His Spirit upon you while you are under the curse of His law. So that of necessity FORGIVENESS OF SIN must be the comrnencement of the Christian life. And this comes, and is synonymous in the Gospel, with deliverance from the curse. Now, as nothing that you can do can take away the curse, it is something that God has to do for you. And if He does it for you, your part is to accept what He has done. Do you see the two points — Salvation before service : and, that as you cannot save yourself, God must save you ? "

LIFE IMPARTED. 13

" I think I do. But how am I to accept of salvation ? "

" By trusting Jesus Christ as your Saviour. This I want you to do by trusting His Word. Will you now please read Gal. iii. 13, the first part of the verse ; and with it you may read the 14th verse."

The man read : —

" Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us ; that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."

" Now, my friend, as you think of yourself as a sinner, and think of Christ's dying for you, and think of Him as loving you, with power and willingness to fully save you, are you, so far as you knotv your own heart, willing to surrender to Him, and accept Him as your Saviour and your Lord ? "

"Yes, I am."

" Well, thank God for that. Now, if accepting Christ means anything, it must mean that you will trust Him ; and your trust will be manifested in believing His words. Do you believe the statement made in Gal. iii. 13? Read it again, please."

" Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us."

« Do you believe it ? " " Yes, I do." " Are you redeemed ? " " No, I am not." " You are really willing to be saved, and are not consciously holding on to any sin you are unwilling to give up, and are willing to be Christ's, and accept Him ? " " Yes, I believe I am."

" Well then, once more : does not accepting Christ mean you will believe what He says ? Please read this in I John v. lo."

" ' He that belie veth not God hath made Him a liar ; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son.'

" You see from this that God is trusted by trusting His Word ; and that He is doubted by doubting His Word. Now will you believe in Christ, and take His word in Gal. lii. 13 as true for you ? "

" I will ! "

" Very well. Are you redeemed ? "

" No, I really cannot say that I am. I do not feel that I am."

" But, my friend, do you not see that the reason you do not feel that you are, is that you really have not yet believed God's Word ? You do not look at the Word when I ask you if you are redeemed, but you look down into your feelings. Now God says that our hearts are 'deceitful above all things ; ' and your deceitful heart is never going to tell you that your sins are forgiven. And if it did tell you so you could not rely upon it. God tells us through His Word, not through our feelings, of our forgiveness, redemption, and salvation, on the ground of what Christ has done for us ; and we accept it by believing His Word against our feelings. When we believe, there will be the result of believing, as in i John v. 10 —

" ' He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.'

" The believing comes first : and a man does not believe on the Son of God until, without feeling, he trusts His Word, because it is His Word, and not because he feels it. This trusting is the act of faith which unites the soul to

LIFE IMPARTED, 15

Christ, and will indeed be followed by the witness, but never preceded. You are shut right up, as every soul is that comes to God, to that act of faith without feeling. So you see here in Ephes. i. 13 —

"'After that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise/ etc.

" The Spirit of God bears witness to us — first, as to our full salvation in Christ through the written Word. We must believe His witness there before He can do anything further for us. And it is as we believe it, and continue believing it, that He bears witness through it from God's Spirit to our spirit, that we are God's sons. This you will see is the meaning of Heb. x. 15-18. The Spirit is there plainly spoken of as bearing witness through the Word. Now, to show you that your difficulty is— that you are not looking entirely away from self, and simply trusting the Word of God without reference to feeling, I will give you a little illustration to help you comprehend what it is to just trust God's bare Word.

** * Christ hath Redeemed ! * Oh, joyful word, Let praise to God awaken, On Christ the wrath of God outpoured, 'I'he curse from us hath taken.

•* ' Christ hath Redeemed ! ' The curse is gone, The Lord alone hath done it : The Cross behold, with God's dear Son, And all our sins, upon it I

** ' Christ hath Redeemed 1' The law is met, Its every claim exacted, And God in justice now can meet The soul in Christ perfected.

*• ' Christ hath Redeemed ! * The Word believe 7 And Christ as Lord confessing, Eternal life thou shalt receive.

And everlasting blessing."

Chapter IV

LIFE IMPARTED BY BELIEVING — ILLUSTRATION. ** He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." — John iii. 36.

HE conversation in the Inquiry Room is still being continued.

" You know the Governor of this State has power, without accountability, to pardon any one he pleases, and to take them out of prison ? "

" Yes, I do ; and I know he sometimes pardons those he had better have left in. They come out, and are as big rogues as ever."

"No doubt. He cannot read men's hearts to tell whether they are truly repentant or not ; but is liable to be deceived by their professions and the recommendations of their friends. God cannot be thus deceived ; although men in folly and blindness seem to act as though they thought He might. And He, blessed be His name, gives with His pardon what the Governor has not power to give — grace in the heart to live the new and better life. But, to go on. We will suppose that the Governor sends down to the prison to - morrow pardons for three different men who are now there under sentence often, fifteen, or twenty years each of imprisonment for violation of law. The pardons are unconditional, are signed by the governor, and with them each of the men is at liberty to at once go out from the prison. But

LIFE IMPARTED BY BELIEVING. 17

all three of the men have the notion firmly in their minds that there is something they must do before they can use the pardons that have been placed at their disposal. All of them take special pains with the petitions they think should be offered to the Governor on their behalf And one waits until he has drawn up his petition, and had his friends numerously sign it; and armed with this and his pardon goes out of prison. Does the petition have anything to do with his getting out ? " No, of course not. His pardon got him out," " Well, the application of this is — the Lord does no want j^^ to be occupied with praying and getting up petitions to Him to pardon you, while in His Word you may read the pardon, ready for your acceptance, to be taken by believing. The next of the prisoners is quite sure that he ought to feel very bad about his wrong-doing, and be able to weep over it, before it would be possible for him to use his pardon ; and so he shuts himself up in his cell for a week, and works up this bad feeling, and then with swollen eyes presents his pardon and goes out. Have the swollen eyes anything to do with his release ? " " No ; the pardon was all that was needed." " So, my friend, your ideas about Repentance are all wrong, in so far as you regard repentance as a state of feeling bad, and think that God will be pleased with you when He sees you are feeling really bad ; and that then because He is pleased with you, and you have satisfied His requirements in repenting enough, you are now worthy of the pardon. Repentance, in the Gospel sense of the word, is being honestly willing to yield to God, and accept His authority. It is produced by the view the Gospel gives of God's love in Christ, and the offer of

t i8 LIFE, WARFARE, AND VICTORY.

His free pardon ; and is evidenced as genuine by our willingness in yielding to God, to accept of that pardon and give him praise and thanks for the same, and not by our unbelieving neglect of the pardon, and being occupied with the vain thought of making ourselves worthy in God's sight by our feelings or our tears. Well, we come to the third prisoner. He also feels that he must do something before he takes the pardon, and so he obtains paper and ink, and writes out with much elaboration, style, and flourishing, a series of good resolutions showing what right ideas he has of generosity and good conduct, and in what a noble, upright manner the remainder of his life shall be passed. He signs his name at the bottom of the page, and holding up the paper for inspection, he is struck with admiration at the evidence of his own innate goodness; and now thinks that the Governor did quite the proper thing in pardoning him, and is sure that he has come into the proper frame to use the pardon, and that, accompanied by his good resolutions, it will get him out. Is he right ?" " No, of course not. The pardon did the business." " Yes, my friend, it did ; and God's pardon will do the business for you, if you will trust it. Good resolutions without the grace of God in our hearts to enable us to keep them are worse than useless. When Christ is accepted in the heart, new desires, new principles, and a new life will follow. But the first thing is — as a guilty, helpless, condemned sinner — to accept Christ ; and not be wasting time in trying to make yourself better before you accept Him ; or in making promises as to what you will do after you accept Him, with the idea that you earn your pardon in so doing.