Follow Peace With All Men

 

Christ In Us- Our Hope.

'The great trouble with us is that sometimes we are afraid that Christ will gain the victory. Why? We have some darling sin that we do not want to give up; we are willing we think that all the rest should go but that, and so we are afraid that Christ will gain the victory and that that sin will have to be given up.

Just think of it! We call Christ in to help defeat our enemy, and when He comes, he finds us on the side of the enemy. 

But if we will give up all these things, Christ will give us something that is infinitely better. When we make up our minds from the word of God that all that God has to give us is in Christ, that He is the fullness of Him that filleth all in all (Eph. 1:23), we will realize that the meager things of this earth are not worth having, compared to what is going to be given us.

In 1 John 4:2-4 we have reference to the wicked spirits with which we have to fight, and this assurance is given to the children of God: "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." 

So with Elisha we know that they that are for us are more than they that are against us. "This is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith." 1 John 5:5, R. V.

Do we believe that Christ has conquered everything and that when we have Him we have everything and that there is no power of darkness that can do us any hurt?

When this has been done, we are crucified with Him. (Gal. 2:20) Our own lives have been given up to Christ, but we still live. Then it must be some other life that we live, and that life is the life of Christ. That is the life in which we glory. Christ is our life, and He has the victory and therefore we have it. "Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." Ephesians 6:11.

What is it to put on the whole armour? To stand in Christ complete, that is what we mean.

He is the truth, the Lord our righteousness. Shod with peace, He is our peace. It is Christ all through. Then take the sword in your hand and it is the word of God and Christ is the eternal word.

"And ye are complete in him." Having put on the whole armour which is Christ, we are complete in Him. "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ!" (Ro.13:14) He is the armour and the armour is He. Thus it is that in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us and gave His life for us (Ro.8:37). There is nothing that can take the armour away from us. "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Ro. 8:38-39)

Excerpt E.J. Waggoner

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1 John 4:4 'Ye are of God little children and have overcome them because greater is he that is IN YOU than he that is in the world.'

1 John 4:13 ' Hereby know we that we dwell in him and HE IN US because he hath given us of his Spirit.'

1 John 4:16 ' And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us, God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and GOD IN HIM.'

1 John 3:24 'And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and HE IN HIM. And hereby we know that HE ABIDETH IN US, by the Spirit which he hath given us.'

John 10:27-30 'My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish  neither shall any an pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand I and my Father are one.'

John 14:17-23 'Even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him for HE DWELLETH WITH YOU AND SHALL BE IN YOU. I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more but ye see me, because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall now that I am in my Father and ye in me and I IN YOU. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him. If a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and MAKE OUR ABODE WITH HIM.'

John 17:23 'I IN THEM, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.'

Romans 8:10,11 'And if Christ BE IN YOU, the body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirt of him that raised up Jesus from the dead DWELL IN YOU, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that DWELLETH IN YOU.'

2 Corinthians 6:16 'And what agreement hath the temple of God with dols? For ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will DWELL IN THEM and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall by my people.'

Ephesians 3:17 'That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love.'

Matthew 10:20 'For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father, which speaketh in you.

John 15:4 'Abide in me and I IN YOU. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except y abide in me.'

John 15:8 'If ye abide in me and my words ABIDE IN YOU ye shall ask what ye will and It shall be done unto you.'

1 Corinthians 3:16 'Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God DWELLETH IN YOU?'

1 Corinthians 16:19 ' "What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is IN YOU, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?'

2 Corinthians 13:5 'Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith prove your ownselves. Know ye not yourselves how that Jesus Christ IS IN YOU, except ye be reprobates?'

Galatians 4:19 'My little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed IN YOU.'

Ephesians 4:6 'One God and Father of All, who is above all and through all, and IN YOU all.'

Philippians 2:13 'For it is God which worketh IN YOU both to will and to do his good pleasure.'

Colossians 1:27 'To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is CHRIST IN YOU the hope of glory.'

Hebrews 13:20,21 'Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working IN YOU that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.'

Faith Is the Victory.

 

More Than Conquerors.

 More than conquerors through Christ.

We live for eternal things, not temporal.

When we are caught up in the temporal we are not caught up in the eternal.

IF we are Christians our focus must be on the eternal and we forget this all the time-- all the time.  Satan focuses our lives on the temporal in any way he possibly can- from the smallest, to the greatest possible way Satan will work things so that we lose sight of eternity. 

We are truly more than conquerors through Christ, and we conquer the temporal through Christ. 

We aren't going to be filled with earthly riches and have the best lives here in our temporary lives. We are going to suffer in many various ways- large and small. We have conquered all the suffering by the realization that eternity is ours. We suffer now, endlessly, we can't escape the many millions of ways of suffering in this temporary life, we just can't. The suffering doesn't mean that we are abandoned by God. We are held always in the arms of our Great Shepherd, right now, as a once lost, but now blessedly found sheep. And we will be held by Him until that day we truly enter miraculously, abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

We must believe in the promises of the UNSEEN. This is faith, belief in the UNSEEN, belief in the ETERNAL which is UNSEEN.  More than conquerors through CHRIST.  All by His grace!

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'In Christ are mercy and truth met together. The same hand that holds the law, holds the pardon also. 

Brethren, remember this, that when the law was spoken from Sinai in thunder tones, it was in the hand of a mediator, even our Lord Jesus Christ. Then the same hand which holds the justice and that which convicts of sin, holds also the pardon. Thanks be unto God which always causeth us to triumph in Christ.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." That idea of "much more" which is so prominent in chapter five, is found again in these verses.

We often hear the expression, "If I can only get inside the gates of heaven, I will be satisfied." I am so thankful that we don't have to just get in, as if we wished to apologize for our presence after we were there. Why not? Because He has promised that "an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

"We have enemies to contend with," says one. Don't talk about them or your trials and temptations, but talk of the power of Christ. All power has been given to Him. so when we wrestle, we will remember that it is not an even-handed battle, but we fight a fight of faith and the power is given unto us whereby we can be more than conquerors through Him that loved us and gave Himself for us. Where sin abounded, there did grace much more abound.

Satan Accuses Because We Are Forgiven.

 The excerpt today made me very happy because it brought a truth home to me that I'd not realized before.

I know we are to confess our sins so they may be forgiven-

1Jn_1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

God tells us this is the truth. 

Throughout my life as a Christ follower I have confessed many sins. Sometimes however, even though a sin is confess and forgiveness sought for, later on the same sin will come to my mind and trouble me as if it had not been confessed and forgiven at all. The guilt overwhelms me and I confess it again and again and it seems quite awful, as if the weight of the sin will never quite leave. I bring to mind murderers and those who commit unspeakable horrors and how they are forgiven should they confess and seek forgiveness in sincerity. And I tell myself if they can be forgiven then surely I can be forgiven. Have you ever had sins you've confessed haunt you?  Well, then this excerpt should help you as it has helped me.

May God bless us all as we seek ONLY His truth! All praise and glory to God for the blessed revelation of enlightenment we are given. Truly, all glory to God!

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Excerpt- With the psalmist we can say, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." Psalm 46:1-3. Can we say that? 

Brethren, that time is coming. The earth will reel to and from like a drunken man and be removed like a cottage and the mountains will skip away and pass over into the ocean. This is going to happen and there will be some people at that time who will feel perfectly calm and trustful, but they will not be composed of men and women who have never learned to say that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to His purpose. The man that doubts God now will doubt Him then. "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."

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? That promise includes all.

"Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; and ye are Christ's and Christ is God's." 1 Corinthians 3:21-23.

This is not in the future. All things are yours at the present time. Everything is ours and therefore we can say with the psalmist, "The lines have fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly heritage."

Yes, we have everything; we are children of the King, of the Most High. What difference does it make if people do not own us? God owns us, and He knows us, and therefore if men heap on us reproach and persecution, the only thing we can do is to pity them and labor for them, for they do not know the riches of the inheritance.

"Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth." Well, there is one that will do it surely. We have his name, Satan. Here is a testimony concerning him. "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before God day and night." Revelation 11:10. Yes, Satan is the accuser of the brethren. He has done it day and night and he is doing it still--laying everything he can to the charge of God's elect. But he is cast down and now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom of God and the power of His Christ. Christ has all power; how good that is.

But says one poor, discouraged, desponding soul, "I believe all that, and I have confessed my sins, and I believe that God is faithful and just to forgive them and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness; but these sins keep coming up before me all the time!" Are you sure that it is Satan that brings them up? That is an important point, for if you are sure of that and they do come up, you ought to be one of the happiest creatures alive.

Why does Satan bring these things up? Because he is the accuser of the brethren, and he is a false accuser; he is a liar and the father of it, and therefore if Satan brings these sins up and accuses you, then you know that they are forgiven, because he would never have brought them up if they had not been forgiven. He could not tell the truth if he tried, and unless they had been forgiven he never would bring them up, never in the world, because he would be afraid that you would confess them, and they would be forgiven.

Well, another query: "I don't know; perhaps it is not Satan. It must be God." No, "It is God that justifieth." If God justifies, He cannot condemn. Who has any right to condemn but God? No one. God is judge alone. Then there is no other soul that has any right to condemn, except God. He shows us our sins and we confess them and give ourselves to Him and He justifies us, and in Him is no variableness nor shadow of turning; therefore, when He justifies, who is there in the universe that can condemn? Who will do it? Satan. But what have we to do with him? If we would only give more credence to God's truth and less to Satan's's lies, it would be better for us.

"Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." Who is going to condemn us, then, since God justifies and Christ died and rose again as a pledge of that justification. Christ died and rose again and is even now at the right hand of God to make intercession for us. Don't you see there is not a possible loophole left for discouragement for the Christian?

There is a time when God brings sins up before us, but it is when they have not been confessed. That is the only time. But it is the Comforter that convicts of sin, so He comforts us in every place, and in the very act of calling to our remembrance the wrongs that we have done. Then when God brings sins to my notice that I have not confessed, I will thank Him for the comfort, and when Satan brings them up again, I will praise God again, for if they were not forgiven, Satan would never bring them up, but if they have been confessed, they have been forgiven.

Things We Can Depend On.

 

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.