Three: The Secret Of Victory Over Sin.
Three: The Secret Of Victory Over Sin.
THE LONGER I live, and learn the experience of most Christian people, the more I long to help them and unfold glimpses of that Life of Peace, and Power, and Victory over sin, which our heavenly Father has made possible for us. There are blessed secrets in the Bible, hidden from the wise and prudent, but revealed to babes; things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, but which God reveals by His Spirit to them that love Him; and if these were once understood and accepted, they would wipe away many a tear, and shed sunshine on many a darkened pathway.
The bitterest experience with most believers is the presence and power of Sin. They long to walk through this grimy world with pure hearts and stainless garments, but when they would do good, evil is present with them. They consent to God's law that it is good; they approve it; they even delight in it after the inward man; they endeavor to keep it; but, notwithstanding all, they seem as helpless to perform it as a man whose brain has been smitten with paralysis, to walk straight. What rivers of briny tears have fallen upon the open pages of the Penitents' Psalm (51st), shed by those who could repeat it every word from heart! And what regiments of weary feet have trodden the Bridge of Sighs, if we may so call Romans vii, which sets forth, in vivid force, the experience of a man who has not learnt God's secret!
Surely our God must have provided for all this. It would not have been like Him to fill us with hatred to sin, and longings for holiness, if there were no escape from the tyranny of the one, and no possibility of attaining the other. It would be a small matter to save us from sinning on the other side of the pearly gate; we want to be saved from sinning now, and in this dark world. We want it for the sake of the world, that it may be attracted and convinced. We want it for our own peace, which can not be perfected whilst we groan under a worse than Egyptian bondage. We want it for the Glory of God, which would be then reflected from us, with undimming brightness, as sunshine from burnished metal.
WHAT, THEN, DOES THE WORD OF GOD LEAD US TO EXPECT?
Before Abraham arose to walk through the land of Promise in its length and, breadth, God bade Him "lift up his eyes and look." And before we can enter into the enjoyment of our privileges in Jesus Christ, we must know what they are, in something of their length and breadth, and depth and height.
I.-WE MUST NOT EXPECT TO BE FREE FROM TEMPTATION.
Our adversary, the devil, is always going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He tempted our Lord, he will tempt us. He will entice us to do wrong by every avenue of sense, and will pour his evil suggestions through eye, and ear, and touch, and mouth, and mind. If he does not attack us himself, he can set on us any one of his myriad agents who will get behind us and step softly up to us and whisperingly suggest many grievous blasphemies which we shall think have proceeded from our own mind.
But temptation is not sin. A man may ask me to share the spoils of a burglary, but no one can accuse me of receiving stolen property if I indignantly refuse, and keep my doors close shut against him. Our Lord was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. You might go through hell itself, teeming with all manner of awful suggestions, and yet not sin. God would not allow Satan to tempt us if temptation necessarily led to sin; but temptation does not do so. There is no sin, so long as the will refuses to consent to the solicitation, or catch at the bait.
Temptation may even be a blessing to a man when it reveals to him his weakness and drives him to the Almighty, Saviour. Do not be surprised, then, dear child of God, if you are tempted at every step of your earthly journey, and almost beyond endurance. You will not be tempted beyond what you are able to bear, and with every temptation there will be a way of escape.
II.-WE MUST NOT EXPECT TO LOSE OUR SINFUL NATURE.
When we are born again, a new life, the life of God, is put into us by the Holy Spirit. But the old self-life, which is called in Scripture THE FLESH, is not taken away. The two may coexist in the same heart. "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." The presence of this old self-life within our heart may be detected by its risings, rufflings, chafings, and movings toward sin, when temptation calls to it from without. It may be as still as death before the increasing power of the new life, but it will still be present in the depths of our nature, as a Samson in the dark dungeons of Philistia; and there will be always a possibility and a fear of its strength growing again to our shame and hurt.
Do not ignore the presence of a sinful nature within you, with its tendencies and possibilities for sin. Many souls have been betrayed into negligence and unwatchfulness by the idea that the root of sin had been plucked from their hearts, and that therefore they could not sin again; and in the face of some sudden uprising of their old nature they have been filled with agony and shame, even if they have not dropped for a moment back into a sea of ink. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
There is a difference between Sin, and sins. Sin is the root-principle of evil, the flesh, the old self-life, the bias and tendency to sin, which may be kept down by the grace of God, but which will remain in us, though in diminishing power, till we leave this world. Sins are the outcome of this; the manifestations in act of the sinful nature within. From these we may be daily saved, through the grace of Jesus (Matt. i: 21). To put the matter clearly, Sin is not dead in us, but we may be dead to Sin, so that it shall not bear the deadly fruits of sins.
III.-WE MUST NOT EXPECT TO BE FREE FROM LIABILITY TO SIN.
What is sin? It is the" Yes" of the will to temptation. It is very difficult to express the delicate workings of our hearts, but does not something like this happen to us when we are tempted? A temptation is suddenly presented to us and makes a strong appeal. Immediately there may be a tremulous movement of the old nature, as the strings of a violin or piano vibrate in answer to any sounds that may be thrilling the air around. Some do not feel this tremulous response; others do, though I believe that it will get fainter and fainter as they treat it with continued neglect, so that at last, in the matured saint, it will become almost inaudible. This response indicates the presence of the evil nature within, which is in itself hateful in the sight of our Holy God, and should be bemoaned and confessed, and ever needs the presence of the Blood of Jesus to counteract and atone; but that tremulous movement has not as yet developed into an actual overt sin, for which we are responsible, and of which we need to repent.
Sin is the act of the will, and is only possible when the will assents to some unholy influence. The tempter presenting his temptation through the senses and emotions, makes an appeal to the will, which is our real self. If that will instantly shudders, as chickens when the hawk is hovering in the sky above them, and cries, "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God! " and looks at once to Jesus,-there are so far as I can understand, no sins. If on the other hand the will begins to palter with temptation, to dally with it, and yield to it, then we have stepped out of the light into the dark, we have broken God's Law, splashed our white robes, and brought ourselves into condemnation. To this we are liable as long as we are in this world. We may live a godly, righteous, sober life for years, but if we look away from God for only a moment, our will may be suddenly mastered, as was Louis XVIII, by the mob that invaded his palace; and we may, like David, be hurried into a sin which will blast our peace and blacken our character for all coming time.
Now what are the secrets of victory over sin?
I.-REMEMBER TH AT THE BLOOD OF JESUS IS EVER AT WORK CLEANSING YOU.
It is sweet to notice the present tenses of Scripture. He forgiveth, healeth, redeemeth, crowneth, satisfieth, executeth judgment; but the sweetest of all is "thee Blood of Jesus cleanseth from all sin." It cleansed us when first we knelt at His cross. It will cleanse away the last remnant of sin as we cross the golden threshold. But it does cleanse us every hour; as the brook flows over the stones in its bed, till they glisten with lustrous beauty; and as the tear water, pouring constantly over the eye, keeps it bright and clean, in spite of all the smuts that darken the air. The possession of a sinful nature is an evil that ever needs an antidote. The risings and stirrings of that nature beneath the appeals of temptation ever need cleansing. The permission of things in our life, which we now count harmless, but which we shall some day, amid increasing light, condemn and put away-all these need forgiveness. But for all these needs there is ample provision for us in the Blood of Jesus, which is always crying to God for us. Even when we do not plead it, or remember it, or realize our need of it, it fulfils for us and in us its unceasing ministry of blessing.
2.-RECKON YOURSELF DEAD TO THE APPEALS OF SIN.
Sin has no power over a dead man. Dress it in its most bewitching guise, yet it stirs him not. Tears and smiles and words and blows alike fail to awaken a response from that cold corpse. No appeal will stir it until it hears the voice of the Son of God.
This is our position in respect to the appeals of sin. God looks on us as having been crucified with Christ, and being dead with Him. In Him we have passed out of the world of sin and death into the world of resurrection glory. This is our position in the mind of God; it is for us to take it up and make it real by faith. We may not feel any great difference, but we must believe that there is; we must act as if there were. Our children sometimes play at make-believe; we, too, are to make believe, and we shall soon come to feel as we believe. When, then, a temptation solicits you, say, "I am dead to thee. Spend not thine energies on one that is oblivious to thy spells and callous to thy charms. Thou hast no more power over me than over my Lord and Head." "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom. vi: I 1.)
3.-WALK IN THE SPIRIT; KEEP IN WITH THE HOLY GHOST.
The Holy Spirit is in the heart of every believer (Rom. viii: 9); but alas! too often He is shut up in some mere attic in the back of the house, whilst the world fills the rest. As long as it is so, there is one long weary story of defeat and unrest. But He is not content. Know ye not that the Spirit, which He hath made to dwell in us, yearneth even unto jealous envy? (Jas. iv: 5, R. V.) Happy are they who yield to Him. Then He will fill them, as the tide fills the harbor and lifts the barges off the banks of mud; He will dwell in them, shedding abroad the perfume of the love of Jesus; and will reveal the deep things of God.
We can always tell when we are wrong with the Spirit of God; our conscience darkens in a moment when we have grieved Him. If we are aware of such a darkness, we do well never to rest until, beneath His electric light, we have discovered the cause, and confessed it, and put it away. Besides this, if we live and walk in the Spirit, we shall find that He will work against the risings of our old nature, counteracting them as disinfecting power counteracts the germs of disease floating in an infected house, so that we may do the things that we would. (Gal. v: 17, R. V.) This is one of the most precious words in the New Testament. If you have never tried it, I entreat you to begin to test it in daily experience. "Walk in the Spirit," hour by hour, by watchful obedience to His slightest promptings, and you will find that" you will not fulfil the lust of the flesh."
4·-AS SOON AS YOU ARE AWARE OF TEMPTATION, LOOK INSTANTLY TO JESUS.
Flee to Him quicker than a chicken runs beneath the shelter of its mother's wing when the kestrel is in the air. In the morning, ere you leave your room, put yourself definitely into His hands, persuaded He is able to keep that which you commit unto Him. Go from your room with the assurance that He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings shall you trust. And when the tempter comes, look instantly up and say, "Jesus, I am trusting Thee to keep me."
This is what the Apostle Paul calls using the shield of Faith. The upward glance of faith puts Jesus as a Shield between the tempter and yourself. You may go through life, saying a hundred times a day, Jesus saves me, and He will never let those that trust in Him be ashamed. "He is able to guard you even from stumbling." (Jude 24, R. V.) You may be pressed with temptations from without, and may feel the workings of evil within, and yet your will looking earnestly to Jesus, shall remain steadfast, immovable, and unyielding. No weapon that is forged against you in the armory of hell shall prosper.
5.-THERE IS SOMETHING BETTER EVEN THAN THIS.
It was first taught me by a grey-haired clergyman, in the study of the Deanery, at Southampton. Once, when tempted to feel great irritation, he told us that he looked up and claimed the patience and gentleness of Christ; and since then it had become the practice of his life to claim from Him the virtue of which he felt the deficiency in himself. In hours of unrest, "Thy Peace, Lord." In hours of irritation, "Thy Patience, Lord." In hours of temptation, "Thy Purity, Lord." In hours of weakness, "Thy Strength, Lord." It was to me a message straight from the throne. Till then I had been content with ridding myself with burdens; now I began to reach forth to positive blessing, making each temptation the occasion for the new acquisition of gold-leaf. Try it, dear reader.
When I have spoken thus in public, I have sometimes been met by the objection, "Ah, sir. it is quite true that the Lord will keep me if I look to Him, but I often forget to look in time." This arises from one of three causes. Perhaps the heart and life have never been entirely surrendered to Jesus. Constant defeat always indicates that there has been failure in consecration. You must not expect Christ to keep you unless you have given your heart and life entirely over to Him, so that He is king. Christ can not be keeper if He is not king. And He will not be king at all, unless He is king in all. Or perhaps there is a want of watchfulness. Christ will not keep us if we carelessly and wantonly put ourselves into the way of temptation. He will give His angels charge over us in every path of duty, but not to catch us every time we like to throw ourselves from the beetling height. Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. Or perhaps there is a lack of feeding on the Word of God. No one can live a life of Faith without seasons of prolonged waiting on God in the loving study of the Bible and in prayer. The man who does not make time for private devotion in the early morning can not walk with God all day. And of the two things, the devout meditation on the Word is more important to soul-health than even prayer. It is more needful for you to hear God's words than that God should hear yours, though the one will always lead to the other. Attend to these conditions, and it will become both easy and natural to trust Christ in the hour of trial.
If, notwithstanding all these helps, you should be still betrayed into a sin, and overtaken by a fault, do not lose heart. If a sheep and a sow fall into a ditch, the sow wallows in it, the sheep bleats piteously until she is cleansed. Go at once to your compassionate Saviour; tell Him in the simplest words the story of your fall and sorrow; ask Him to wash you at once and restore your soul, and, whilst you are asking, believe that it is done. Then go to anyone against or with whom you have sinned, and confess your faults one to another. Thus the peace of God that passeth all understanding shall return to roost in your heart, and to guard it like a sentry-angel in shining armor.
And if you thus live, free from the power of sin, you will find that the Master will begin to use you as never before and to tell you His heart-secrets, and to open to you the royal magnificence of a life hidden with Himself in God.
May this be your happy lot, dear reader.