All In All

 

Excerpt- E.J. Waggoner-

God had a purpose. Can it be changed? No, the thing is fixed. Those that are called are justified; in Christ, therefore, we have justification. But those that are justified are also glorified. Can we believe that? If we can, we have got hold of a wonderful amount of strength. We have the glory of Christ? Yes, "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one." John 17:22.

Mark, it is past tense. The glory that God has given to Christ is ours today. 

It is true that that glory doth not yet appear and the world knoweth us not, because it knew not Christ. But it is ours, and it will appear and even now it appears in the form of grace. 

Inwardly we have it, for says Paul, "That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man." Ephesians 3:10.

For the same reason for thy name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory." Jeremiah 10:21.

"The Lord will give grace and glory, no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." Peter says that, believing, we may "rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." 1 Peter 1:8.

The glory is all ours; we have it now. By and by when we have accepted this grace according to the riches of His glory and worked out in us His purpose, then we will step out of grace into glory on the same level.

"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" 

Take this verse and read it and commit it to memory; and then remember to say, "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony." Revelation 12:11. 

And remember that Christ gave the example of defeating Satan by the word of the testimony; every time the temptation came He said, "It is written." So when the clouds of darkness come and the thick darkness gathers around, just say, "If God be for us, who can be against us!" And God is for us, as is shown in that He gave Christ to die for us and raised Him again for our justification.

There is peace in the thought that God works out all things after the counsel of His own will and that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. Then it does not matter what comes against us, for in that it comes against us, it comes against the purpose of God, and that is as sure and firm as the existence of the Almighty can make it.

Now who is against us? Satan is against us. That does not make any difference if he is. Satan has tried his power with Christ, and it has proved itself to be nothing. "All power in heaven and earth is given to me," says Christ. Then if all power has been given to Christ in heaven and in earth and it has been given, where is there any left for Satan? there is none. In a contest with Christ, Satan has no power; so if we have Christ for us, nothing can be against us.

Some of us have been talking about the power of Satan in the past; but he has none, there is none left for him. Technically speaking, Satan is against us. Who is he? "The prince of the power of the air." He brings pestilence; he brings disease; he puts things in our way and arrays them against us. But the very things which he arrays against us to work our ruin, God takes and makes them for us. They are all good. We often sing: Let good or ill befall, It must be good for me, Secure of having Thee in all, Of having all in thee.

But we very often sing things that we do not believe at all. Now I would not have anyone sing these things any less, but I would have you believe them more. It is often the case that if you took the words from the music and put them into plain prose, there would not be anyone in a whole congregation who would believe or dare to say them. Let us believe them not because they are in the hymn, but because they are Bible truth.

We are like the people who are represented by the prophet Ezekiel: "Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against [about] thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses and speak one to another, everyone to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord." That is it--they say, Come, let us go to meeting and hear the sermon. "And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not." Ezekiel 33:30-32.

I say that a great many of these truths are just a song to many people. They hear them and are interested in them and then pass on but they do not believe or do them. But the Lord has given them for us to both believe and to do, and they will be our strength. So everything works for good to them that love God. We cannot always see how or tell how, but God has said it and we know it is so. There are many things that we cannot tell why we believe and to our very senses they do not appear to be so, but the very fact that God has promised that if we do believe them they will be so, makes them so, when we take hold and believe them. We can never know this till we do believe, but when we do believe, then we will know. So if God be for us, who can be against us?

Think of that lone prophet of God, Elisha. He was down in Samaria; the mountains were all around him. A whole host of armed men had come to take him. He stood alone with his servant, and that servant was afraid. He did not think in that moment, nor did he say, that the King of Israel ought to send a troop of horse or some infantry to defend him. The young man came to him and said, "Alas, my master! How shall we do?" Elisha prayed, "Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes." and the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw and behold the mountains were full of horses and chariots of fire round about.

The whole mountain and plain was filled with chariots and horses, and only one of them was stronger than the whole host of the enemy. It is as true in our case as in that of Elisha, that "they that be for us are more than they that be against us," and the only thing for us to do is to get our eyes open so that we may see that this is so. What opens our eyes? The word; it is a lamp unto our feet and a light to our path, and if we believe it, we will know that they that are for us are more than they that are against us.

He who is with us is the living God of Israel, who has power to turn darkness into light and weakness into strength; and every evil thing that comes against us, He turns into a blessing to help us on our way.

"He that spared not His own Son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?" Why will He with Christ also give us all things? Because all things are in Him. Note Ephesians 1:23. "Which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all."

He that hath put on Christ is "strengthened with all might!" Why? Because God has placed Christ "far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all." 

Therefore everything is in Christ. In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He has all power given him in heaven and in earth. Don't you see that this being the case, it is a foregone conclusion that when God gave Christ for us and freely delivered Him up for us all, that in Him He does give us all things.