HOW TO SUCCEED IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
WORKS BY R. A. TORREY
_Superintendent of the Moody Bible Institute, Chicago_
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How to Succeed in
The Christian Life
By R. A. TORREY
_Author of “How to Bring Men to Christ,” “What
the Bible Teaches,” “Talks to Men,” etc., etc._
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NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO
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_Dedicated to the many thousands in many lands who have professed Christ
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CONTENTS
I. BEGINNING RIGHT 11
II. THE OPEN CONFESSION OF CHRIST 19
III. ASSURANCE OF SALVATION 22
IV. RECEIVING THE HOLY SPIRIT 29
V. LOOKING UNTO JESUS 35
VI. CHURCH MEMBERSHIP 41
VII. BIBLE STUDY 46
VIII. DIFFICULTIES IN THE BIBLE 64
IX. PRAYER 74
X. WORKING FOR CHRIST 82
XI. FOREIGN MISSIONS 90
XII. COMPANIONS 98
XIII. AMUSEMENTS 103
XIV. PERSECUTION 108
XV. GUIDANCE 113
INTRODUCTION
I have for years felt the need of a book to put in the hands of those
beginning the Christian life that would tell them just how to make a
complete success of this new life upon which they were entering. I could
find no such book, so I have been driven to write one. This book aims
to tell the young convert just what he most needs to know. I hope that
pastors and evangelists and other Christian workers may find it a good
book to put in the hands of young converts. I hope that it may also prove
a helpful book to many who have long been Christians but have not made
that headway in the Christian life that they long for.
How to Succeed in the Christian Life
I
BEGINNING RIGHT
There is nothing more important in the Christian life than beginning
right. If we begin right we can go on right. If we begin wrong the whole
life that follows is likely to be wrong. If any one who reads these pages
has begun wrong, it is a very simple matter to begin over again and begin
right. What the right beginning in the Christian life is we are told in
John 1: 12, “But as many as RECEIVED HIM, to them gave He power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” The right way
to begin the Christian life is by receiving Jesus Christ. To any one who
receives Him, He at once gives power to become a child of God. If the
reader of this book should be the wickedest man on earth and should at
this moment receive Jesus Christ, that very instant he would become a
child of God. God says so in the most unqualified way in the verse quoted
above. No one can become a child of God in any other way. No man, no
matter how carefully he has been reared, no matter how well he has been
sheltered from the vices and evils of this world, is a child of God until
he receives Jesus Christ. We are “sons of God through faith in Christ
Jesus” (Gal. 3: 26, R. V.), and in no other way.
What does it mean to receive Jesus Christ? It means to take Christ
to be to yourself all that God offers Him to be to everybody. Jesus
Christ is God’s gift. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life” (John 3: 16). Some accept this wondrous gift of God.
Every one who does accept this gift becomes a child of God. Many others
refuse this wondrous gift of God, and every one who refuses this gift of
God perishes. He is condemned already. “He that believeth on the Son is
not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already because he
hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:
18).
What does God offer His Son to be to us?
1. First of all, _God offers Jesus to us to be our sin-bearer_. We have
all sinned. There is not a man or woman or a boy or a girl who has not
sinned (Romans 3: 22, 23). If any of us say that we have not sinned we
are deceiving ourselves and giving the lie to God (1 John 1: 8, 10).
Now we must each of us bear our own sin or some one else must bear it
in our place. If we were to bear our own sins, it would mean we must
be banished forever from the presence of God, for God is holy. “God is
light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). But God Himself has
provided another to bear our sins in our place so that we should not need
to bear them ourselves. This sin-bearer is God’s own Son, Jesus Christ,
“For He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). When Jesus Christ
died upon the cross of Calvary He redeemed us from the curse of the law
by being made a curse in our stead (Gal. 3:13). To receive Christ then
is to believe this testimony of God about His Son, to believe that Jesus
Christ did bear our sins in His own body on the cross (1 Pet. 2:24), and
to trust God to forgive all our sins because Jesus Christ has borne them
in our place. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every
one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all”
(Is. 53:6). Our own good works, past, present or future have nothing to
do with the forgiveness of our sins. Our sins are forgiven, not because
of any good works that we do, they are forgiven because of the atoning
work of Christ upon the cross of Calvary in our place. If we rest in
this atoning work we shall do good works, but our good works will be the
outcome of our being saved and the outcome of our believing on Christ as
our sin-bearer. Our good works will not be the ground of our salvation,
but the result of our salvation, and the proof of it. We must be very
careful not to mix in our good works at all as the ground of salvation.
We are not forgiven because of Christ’s death _and our good works_, we
are forgiven solely and entirely because of Christ’s death. To see this
clearly is the right beginning of the true Christian life.
2. _God offers Jesus to us as our deliverer from the power of sin._
Jesus not only died, He rose again. To-day He is a living Saviour. He
has all power in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28: 18). He has power to
keep the weakest sinner from falling (Jude 24). He is able to save not
only from the uttermost but “to the uttermost” all that come unto the
Father through Him. (Wherefore He is able to save to the uttermost them
that draw near unto God through Him, seeing that He ever liveth to make
intercession for them.—Heb. 7: 25, R. V.) “If the Son therefore shall
make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8: 36). To receive Jesus is
to believe this that God tells us in His Word about Him, to believe that
He did rise from the dead, to believe that He does now live, to believe
that He has power to keep us from falling, to believe that He has power
to keep us from the power of sin day by day, and just trust Him to do it.
This is the secret of daily victory over sin. If we try to fight sin in
our own strength, we are bound to fail. If we just look up to the risen
Christ to keep us every day and every hour, He will keep us. Through the
crucified Christ we get deliverance from the guilt of sin, our sins are
all blotted out, we are free from all condemnation; but it is through
the risen Christ that we get daily victory over the power of sin. Some
receive Christ as a sin-bearer and thus find pardon, but do not get
beyond that, and so their life is one of daily failure. Others receive
Him as their risen Saviour also, and thus enter into an experience
of victory over sin. To begin right we must take Him not only as our
sin-bearer, and thus find pardon; but we must also take Him as our risen
Saviour, our Deliverer from the power of sin, our Keeper, and thus find
daily victory over sin.
3. But _God offers Jesus to us, not only as our sin-bearer and our
Deliverer from the power of sin, but He also offers Him to us as our Lord
and King_. We read in Acts 2: 36, “Let all the house of Israel know
assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified,
both Lord and Christ.” Lord means Divine Master, and Christ means
anointed King. To receive Jesus is to take Him as our Divine Master,
as the One to whom we yield the absolute confidence of our intellects,
the One whose word we believe absolutely, the One whom we will believe
though many of the wisest of men may question or deny the truth of His
teachings; and as our King to whom we gladly yield the absolute control
of our lives, so that the question from this time on is never going to
be, what would I like to do or what do others tell me to do, or what do
others do, but the whole question is WHAT WOULD MY KING JESUS HAVE ME DO?
A right beginning involves an unconditional surrender to the Lordship and
Kingship of Jesus.
The failure to realize that Jesus is Lord and King, as well as Saviour,
has led to many a false start in the Christian life. We begin with Him
as our Saviour, as our sin-bearer and our Deliverer from the power of
sin, but we must not end with Him merely as Saviour, we must know Him as
Lord and King. There is nothing more important in a right beginning of
the Christian life than an unconditional surrender, both of the thoughts
and the conduct to Jesus. Say from your heart and say it again and again,
“_All_ for Jesus.” Many fail because they shrink back from this entire
surrender. They wish to serve Jesus with half their heart, and part of
themselves and part of their possessions. To hold back anything from
Jesus means a wretched life of stumbling and failure.
The life of entire surrender is a joyous life all along the way. If you
have never done it before, go alone with God to-day, get down on your
knees and say, “All for Jesus,” and mean it. Say it very earnestly; say
it from the bottom of your heart. Stay there until you realize what it
means and what you are doing. It is a wondrous step forward when one
really takes it. If you have taken it already, take it again, take it
often. It always has fresh meaning and brings fresh blessedness. In
this absolute surrender is found the key to the truth. Doubts rapidly
disappear for one who surrenders all (John 7: 17). In this absolute
surrender is found the secret of power in prayer (1 John 3: 22). In this
absolute surrender is found the supreme condition of receiving the Holy
Ghost (Acts 5: 32).
Taking Christ as your Lord and King involves obedience to His will as far
as you know it in each smallest detail of life. There are those who tell
us that they have taken Christ as their Lord and King who at the same
time are disobeying Him daily in business, in domestic life, in social
life and in personal conduct Such persons are deceiving themselves. You
have not taken Jesus as your Lord and King if you are not striving to
obey Him in everything each day. He Himself says, “Why call ye Me ‘Lord,
Lord!’ and do not the things that I say?” (Luke 6: 46).
To sum it all up, the right way to begin the Christian life is to accept
Jesus Christ as your sin-bearer and to trust God to forgive your sins
because Jesus Christ died in your place; to accept Him as your risen
Saviour who ever lives to make intercession for you, and who has all
power to keep you, and to trust Him to keep you from day to day; and
to accept Him as your Lord and King to whom you surrender the absolute
control of your thoughts and of your life. This is the right beginning,
the only right beginning of the Christian life. If you have made this
beginning, all that follows will be comparatively easy. If you have not
made this beginning, make it now.
II
THE OPEN CONFESSION OF CHRIST
Having begun the Christian life right by taking the proper attitude
towards Christ in a private transaction between Himself and yourself,
the next step is an open confession of the relationship that now exists
between yourself and Jesus Christ. Jesus says in Matt. 10: 32, “Whosoever
therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My
Father which is in heaven.” He demands a public confession. He demands
it for your own sake. This is the path of blessing. Many attempt to
be disciples of Jesus and not let the world know it. No one has ever
succeeded in that attempt. To be a secret disciple means to be no
disciple at all. If one really has received Christ he cannot keep it
to himself. “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh”
(Matt. 12: 34). So important is the public confession of Christ that Paul
puts it first in his statement of the conditions of salvation. He says,
“If thou shalt _confess with thy mouth_ the Lord Jesus and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the
mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10: 9, 10). The life of
confession is the life of full salvation. Indeed, the life of confession
is the life of the only real salvation. When we confess Christ before men
down here, He confesses us before the Father in heaven and the Father
gives us the Holy Spirit as the seal of our salvation.
It is not enough that we confess Christ just once, as, for example, when
we are confirmed, or when we unite with the church, or when we come
forward in a revival meeting. We should confess Christ constantly. We
should not be ashamed of our Lord and King. We should let people know
that we are on His side. In the home, in the church, at our work, and at
our play, we should let others know where we stand. Of course, we should
not parade our Christianity or our piety, but we should leave no one in
doubt whether we belong to Christ. We should let it be seen that we glory
in Him as our Lord and King.
The failure to confess Christ is one of the most frequent causes of
backsliding. Christians get into new relationships where they are not
known as Christians and where they are tempted to conceal the fact; they
yield to the temptation and they soon find themselves drifting. The more
you make of Jesus Christ, the more He will make of you. It will save you
from many a temptation if the fact is clearly known that you are one who
acknowledges Christ as Lord in all things.
III
ASSURANCE OF SALVATION
If one is to have the fullest measure of joy and power in Christian
service, he must know that his sins are forgiven, that he is a child
of God, and that he has eternal life. It is the believer’s privilege
to _know_ that he has eternal life. John says in 1 John 5: 13, R. V.,
“These things have I written unto you, _that ye may know_ that ye have
eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.”
John wrote this first epistle for the express purpose that any one who
believes on the name of the Son of God _might know_ that he has eternal
life.
There are those who tell us that no one can know that he has eternal
life until he is dead and has been before the judgment seat of God, but
God Himself tells us that we may know. To deny the possibility of the
believer’s knowing that he has eternal life is to say that the First
Epistle of John was written in vain, and it is to insult the Holy Spirit
who is its real author. Again Paul tells us in Acts 13: 39, R. V., “By
Him (that is by Christ) every one that believeth _is justified_ from
all things.” So every one that believeth in Jesus may know that he is
justified from all things. He may know it because the Word of God says
so. Again John tells us in John 1: 12, R. V., “But _as many as received
Him_ (that is Jesus Christ) to them gave He the right to become children
of God, even to them that believe on His name.” Here is a definite and
unmistakable declaration that every one who receives Jesus becomes a
child of God. Therefore every believer in Jesus may know that he is a
child of God. He may know it on the surest of all grounds, _i. e._,
because the Word of God asserts that he is a child of God.
But how may any individual know that he has eternal life? He may know
it on the very best ground of knowledge, that is through the testimony
of God Himself as given in the Bible. The testimony of Scripture is the
testimony of God. What the Scriptures say is absolutely sure. What the
Scriptures say God says. Now in John 3: 36 the Scriptures say, “He that
believeth on the Son _hath_ everlasting life.” Any one of us may know
whether we believe on the Son or not. Whether we have that real faith
in Christ that leads us to receive Him. If we have this faith in Christ
we have God’s own written testimony that we have eternal life, that our
sins are forgiven, that we are the children of God. We may feel forgiven,
or we may not feel forgiven, but that does not matter. It is not a
question of what we feel but of what God says. God’s Word is always to
be believed. Our own feelings are oftentimes to be doubted. There are
many who are led to doubt their sins are forgiven, to doubt that they
have everlasting life, to doubt that they are saved, because they do not
feel forgiven, or do not feel that they have everlasting life, or do not
feel that they are saved. Because you do not feel it is no reason why you
should doubt it.
Suppose that you were sentenced to imprisonment and that your friends
secured a pardon for you. The legal document announcing your pardon is
brought to you. You read it and know you are pardoned because the legal
document says so, but the news is so good and so sudden that you are
dazed by it. You do not realize that you are pardoned. Some one comes to
you and says, “Are you pardoned?” What would you reply? You would say,
“Yes, I am pardoned.” Then he asks, “Do you feel pardoned?” You reply,
“No, I do not feel pardoned. It is so sudden, it is so wonderful, I
cannot realize it.” Then he says to you, “But how can you know that you
are pardoned if you do not feel it?” You would hold out the document and
you would say, “This says so.” The time would come, after you had read
the document over and over again and believed it, when you would not
only know you were pardoned because the document said so but you would
feel it. Now the Bible is God’s authoritative document declaring that
every one that believeth in Jesus is justified; declaring that every one
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; declaring that every one
who receives Jesus is a child of God. If any one asks you if your sins
are all forgiven, reply, “Yes, I know they are because God says so.” If
they ask you if you know that you are a child of God, reply, “Yes, I know
I am a child of God because God says so.” If they ask you if you have
everlasting life, reply, “Yes, I know I have everlasting life because
God says so. God says, ‘He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life.’ I know I believe on the Son, and therefore I know I have eternal
life—because God says so.” You may not feel it yet but if you will keep
meditating upon God’s statement and believing what God says, the time
will come when you will feel it.
For one who believes on the Son of God to doubt that he has eternal
life is for him to make God a liar. “He that believeth on the Son of
God hath the witness in him. He that believeth not God, hath made Him a
liar because he hath not believed in the witness that God hath borne
concerning His Son and the witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal
life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath the life: he
that hath not the Son of God hath not the life” (1 John 5: 10-12, R. V.).
Any one who does not believe God’s testimony that He has given unto us
eternal life and that this life is in His Son and that he that hath the
Son hath the life, makes God a liar.
It is sometimes said “it is presumption for any one to say that he knows
he is saved, or to say that he knows that he has eternal life.” But is it
presumption to believe God? Is it not rather presumption not to believe
God, to make God a liar? When you who believe on the Son of God and yet
doubt that you have eternal life, you make God a liar. When Jesus said
to the woman who was a sinner, “Thy sins are forgiven” (Luke 7: 48),
was it presumption for her to go out and say, “I know my sins are all
forgiven”? Would it not have been presumption for her to have doubted for
a moment that her sins were all forgiven? Jesus had said that they were
forgiven. For her to doubt it would have been for her to give the lie to
Jesus. Is it then any more presumption for the believer to-day to say,
“My sins are all forgiven, I have eternal life,” when God says in His
written testimony to every one that believeth, “You are justified from
all things” (Acts 13: 39), “You have eternal life” (John 3: 36; 1 John
5: 13)?
Be very sure first of all that you really do believe on the name of the
Son of God; that you really have received Jesus. If you are sure of this
then never doubt for a moment that your sins are all forgiven, never
doubt for a moment that you are a child of God, never doubt for a moment
that you have everlasting life. If Satan comes and whispers, “Your sins
are not forgiven,” point Satan to the Word of God and say, “God says my
sins are forgiven and I know they are.” If Satan whispers, “Well perhaps
you don’t believe on Him,” then say, “Well if I never did before I will
now.” And then go out rejoicing, knowing that your sins are forgiven,
knowing that you are a child of God, knowing that you have everlasting
life.
There are doubtless many who say they know they have eternal life who
really do not believe on the name of the Son of God, who have not really
received Jesus. This is not true assurance. It has no sure foundation in
the Word of God who cannot lie. If we wish to get assurance of salvation
we must first get saved. The reason why many have not the assurance that
they are saved is because they are not saved. They ought not to have
assurance. What they need first is salvation. But if you have received
Jesus in the way described in the first chapter, YOU ARE SAVED, you are
a child of God, your sins are forgiven. Believe it, know it. Rejoice in
it.
Having settled it, let it remain settled. Never doubt it. You may make
mistakes, you may stumble, you may fall, but even if you do, if you have
really received Jesus, know that your sins are forgiven and rise from
your fall and go forward in the glad assurance that there is nothing
between you and God.
IV
RECEIVING THE HOLY SPIRIT
When the Apostle Paul came to Ephesus, he found a little group of twelve
disciples of Christ. There was something about these twelve disciples
that struck Paul unfavourably. We are not told what it was. It may be
that he did not find in them that overflowing joyfulness that one learns
to expect in all Christians who have really entered into the fullness
of blessing that there is for them in Christ. It may be that Paul was
troubled at the fact that there were only twelve of them, thinking that
if these twelve were what they ought to be, there would certainly have
been more than twelve of them by this time. Whatever it may have been
that impressed Paul unfavourably, he went right to the root of the
difficulty at once by putting to them the question, “Did ye receive the
Holy Ghost when ye believed?” (Acts 19: 2, R. V.). It came out at once
that they had not received the Holy Ghost, that in fact they did not
know that the Holy Ghost had been given. Then Paul told them that the
Holy Ghost had been given, and also showed them just what they must do
to receive the Holy Ghost then and there, and before that gathering
was over the Holy Ghost came upon them. From that day on there was a
different state of affairs in Ephesus. A great revival sprang up at once
so that the whole city was shaken, “So mightily grew the Word of God and
prevailed” (Acts 19: 20). Paul’s question to these young disciples in
Ephesus should be put to young disciples everywhere, “Have ye received
the Holy Ghost?” In _receiving the Holy Spirit_ is the great secret of
joyfulness in our own hearts, of victory over sin, of power in prayer,
and of effective service.
Every one who has truly received Jesus must have the Holy Spirit dwelling
in him in some sense; but in many believers, though the Holy Spirit
dwells in them, He dwells way back in some hidden sanctuary of their
being, back of consciousness. It is something quite different, something
far better than this, to receive the Holy Spirit in the sense that Paul
meant in his question. To receive the Holy Spirit in such a sense that
one knows experimentally that he has received the Holy Spirit, to receive
the Holy Spirit in such a sense that we are conscious of the joy with
which He fills our hearts different from any joy that we have ever known
in the world; to receive the Holy Spirit in such a sense that He rules
our life and produces within us in ever increasing measure the fruit
of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance; to receive the Holy Spirit in such a sense
that we are conscious of His drawing our hearts out in prayer in a way
that is not of ourselves; to receive the Holy Spirit in such a sense that
we are conscious of His help when we witness for Christ, when we speak
to others individually and try to lead them to accept Christ, or when we
teach a Sunday-school class, or speak in public, or do any other work for
the Master. Have you received the Holy Spirit? If you have not, let me
tell you how you may.
1. First of all in order to receive the Holy Spirit, one must be resting
in the death of Christ on the cross for us as the sole and all-sufficient
ground upon which God pardons all our sins and forgives us.
2. In order to receive the Holy Spirit we must put away every known sin.
We should go to our heavenly Father and ask Him to search us through and
through and bring to light anything in our life, our outward life or our
inward life, that is wrong in His sight, and if He does bring anything to
light that is displeasing to Him, we should put it away, no matter how
dear it is to us. There must be a complete renunciation of all sin in
order to receive the Holy Spirit.
3. In the third place, in order to receive the Holy Spirit, there must
be an open confession of Christ before the world. The Holy Spirit is not
given to those who are trying to be disciples in secret, but to those who
obey Christ and publicly confess Him before the world.
4. In the fourth place, in order to receive the Holy Spirit, there must
be an absolute surrender of our lives to God. You must go to Him and say,
“Heavenly Father, here I am. Thou hast bought me with a price. I am Thy
property. I renounce all claim to do my own will, all claim to govern my
own life, all claim to have my own way. I give myself up unreservedly to
Thee—all I am and all I have. Send me where Thou wilt, use me as Thou
wilt, do with me what Thou wilt—I am Thine.” If we hold anything back
from God, no matter how small it may seem, that spoils it all. But if we
surrender all to God, then God will give all that He has to us. There
are some who shrink from this absolute surrender to God, but absolute
surrender to God is simply absolute surrender to infinite love. Surrender
to the Father, to the Father whose love is not only wiser than any
earthly father’s, but more tender than any earthly mother’s.
5. In order to receive the Holy Spirit there should be definite asking
for the Holy Spirit. Our Lord Jesus says in Luke 11: 13, “If ye then,
being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more
shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?”
Just ask God to give you the Holy Spirit and expect Him to do it, because
He says He will.
6. Last of all, in order to receive the Holy Spirit, there must be faith,
simply taking God at His Word. No matter how positive any promise of
God’s Word may be, we enjoy it personally only when we believe. Our Lord
Jesus says, “All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye
have received them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11: 24, R. V.). When
you pray for the Holy Spirit you have prayed for something according
to God’s will and therefore you may know that your prayer is heard and
that you have what you asked of Him (1 John 5: 14, 15). You may feel no
different, but do not look at your feelings but at God’s promise. Believe
the prayer is heard, believe that God has given you the Holy Spirit and
you will afterwards have in actual experience what you have received in
simple faith on the bare promise of God’s Word.
It is well to go often alone and kneel down and look up to the Holy
Spirit and put into His hands anew the entire control of your life.
Ask Him to take the control of your thoughts, the control of your
imagination, the control of your affections, the control of your desires,
the control of your ambitions, the control of your choices, the control
of your purposes, the control of your words, the control of your actions,
the control of everything, and just expect Him to do it. The whole secret
of victory in the Christian life is letting the Holy Spirit who dwells
within you, have undisputed right of way in the entire conduct of your
life.
V
LOOKING UNTO JESUS
If we are to run with patience the race that is set before us, we must
always keep looking unto Jesus (Heb. 12: 1-3). One of the simplest and
yet one of the mightiest secrets of abiding joy and victory is to _never
lose sight of Jesus_.
1. First of all _we must keep looking at Jesus as the ground of our
acceptance before God_. Over and over again Satan will make an attempt
to discourage us by bringing up our sins and failures and thus try to
convince us that we are not children of God, or not saved. If he succeeds
in getting us to keep looking at and brooding over our sins, he will soon
get us discouraged, and discouragement means failure. But if we will keep
looking at what God looks at, the death of Jesus Christ in our place that
completely atones for every sin that we ever committed, we will never be
discouraged because of the greatness of our sins. We shall see that while
our sins are great, very great, that they have all been atoned for. Every
time Satan brings up one of our sins, we shall see that Jesus Christ has
redeemed us from its curse by being made a curse in our place (Gal. 3:
13). We shall see that while in ourselves we are full of unrighteousness,
nevertheless in Christ we are made the righteousness of God, because
Christ was made to be sin in our place (2 Cor. 5: 21). We will see that
every sin that Satan taunts us about has been borne and settled forever
(1 Pet. 2: 24; Is. 53: 6). We shall always be able to sing,
“Jesus paid my debt,
All the debt I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.”
If you are this moment troubled about any sin that you have ever
committed, either in the past or in the present, just look at Jesus on
the cross; believe what God tells you about Him, that this sin which
troubles you was laid upon Him (Is. 53: 6). Thank God that the sin is
all settled; be full of gratitude to Jesus who bore it in your place and
trouble about it no more. It is an act of base ingratitude to God to
brood over sins that He in His infinite love has cancelled. Keep looking
at Christ on the cross and walk always in the sunlight of God’s favour.
This favour of God has been purchased for you at great cost. Gratitude
demands that you should always believe in it and walk in the light of it.
2. In the second place, _we must keep looking at Jesus as our risen
Saviour, who has all power in heaven and on earth and is able to keep
us every day and every hour_. Are you tempted to do some wrong at this
moment? If you are, remember that Jesus rose from the dead, remember
that at this moment He is living at the right hand of God in the glory;
remember that He has all power in heaven and on earth, and that,
therefore, He can give you victory right now. Believe what God tells
you in His Word that Jesus has power to save you this moment “to the
uttermost” (Heb. 7: 25). Believe that He has power to give you victory
over this sin that now besets you. Ask Him to give you victory, expect
Him to do it. In this way by looking unto the risen Christ for victory
you may have victory over sin every day, every hour, every moment.
“Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead” (2 Tim. 2: 8, R. V.).
God has called every one of us to a victorious life, and the secret of
this victorious life is always looking to the risen Christ for victory.
Through looking to Christ crucified we obtain pardon and enjoy peace.
Through looking to the risen Christ we obtain present victory over the
power of sin. If you have lost sight of the risen Christ and have yielded
to temptation, confess your sin and know that it is forgiven because God
says so (1 John 1: 9) and look to Jesus, the risen One, again to give
you victory now and keep looking to Him.
3. In the third place, _we must keep looking to Jesus as the One whom
we should follow in our daily conduct_. Our Lord Jesus says to us, His
disciples to-day, as He said to His early disciples, “Follow Me.” The
whole secret of true Christian conduct can be summed up in these two
words “Follow Me.” “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself so to
walk _even as He walked_” (1 John 2: 6). One of the commonest causes of
failure in Christian life is found in the attempt to follow some good
man, whom we greatly admire. No man and no woman, no matter how good,
can be safely followed. If we follow any man or woman, we are bound to
go astray. There never has been but one absolutely perfect Man upon this
earth—the Man Christ Jesus. If we try to follow any other man we are more
sure to imitate his faults than his excellencies. Look at Jesus and Jesus
only as your Guide.
If at any time you are in any perplexity as to what to do, simply ask
the question, What would Jesus do? Ask God by His Holy Spirit to show
you what Jesus would do. Study your Bible to find out what Jesus did
do and follow Jesus. Even though no one else seems to be following
Jesus, be sure that you follow Him. Do not spend your time or thought in
criticising others because they do not follow Jesus. See that you follow
Him yourself. When you are wasting your time criticising others for not
following Jesus, Jesus is always saying to you, “What is that to thee;
follow THOU Me” (John 21: 22). The question for you is not what following
Jesus may involve for other people. The question is what does following
Jesus mean for you?
This is the really simple life, the life of simply following Jesus. Many
perplexing questions will come to you, but the most perplexing question
will soon become as clear as day if you determine with all your heart to
follow Jesus in everything. Satan will always be ready to whisper to you,
“Such and such a good man does it,” but all you need to do is to answer,
“It matters not to me what this or that man may do or not do. The only
question to me is, What would Jesus do?” There is wonderful freedom in
this life of simply following Jesus. This path is straight and plain.
But the path of the one who tries to shape his conduct by observing the
conduct of others is full of twists and turns and pitfalls. Keep looking
at Jesus. Follow on trustingly where He leads. This is the path of the
just which shineth more and more unto the perfect day (Prov. 4: 18). He
is the Light of the World, any one who follows Him shall not walk in
darkness, but shall have the light of life all along the way (John 8:
12).
VI
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP
No young Christian and no old Christian can have real success in the
Christian life without the fellowship of other believers. The church
is a divine institution, built by Jesus Christ Himself. It is the one
institution that abides. Other institutions come and go; they do their
work for their day and disappear, but the church will continue to the
end. “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16: 18).
The church is made up of men and women, imperfect men and women, and
consequently is an imperfect institution, but none the less it is of
divine origin and God loves it, and every believer should realize that
he belongs to it and should openly take his place in it and bear his
responsibilities regarding it.
The true church consists of all true believers, all who are united to
Jesus Christ by a living faith in Himself. In its outward organization
at the present time, it is divided into numberless sects and local
congregations, but in spite of these divisions the true church is one. It
has one Lord, Jesus Christ. It has one faith, faith in Him as Saviour,
Divine Lord and only King; one baptism, the baptism in the one Spirit
into the one body (Eph. 4: 4, 5; 1 Cor. 12: 13). But each individual
Christian needs the fellowship of individual fellow believers. The
outward expression of this fellowship is in membership in some organized
body of believers. If we hold aloof from all organized churches, hoping
thus to have a broader fellowship with all believers belonging to all
the churches, we deceive ourselves. We will miss the helpfulness that
comes from intimate union with some local congregation. I have known many
well-meaning persons who have held aloof from membership in any specific
organization, and I have never known a person who has done this, whose
own spiritual life has not suffered by it. On the day of Pentecost the
three thousand who were converted were at once baptized and were added
to the church (Acts 2: 41, 47), and “They continued steadfastly in the
apostle’s doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in
prayers.” Their example is the one to follow. If you have really received
Jesus Christ, hunt up as soon as possible some company of others who have
received Jesus Christ and unite yourself with them.
In many communities there may be no choice of churches, for there is only
one. In other communities one will be faced with the question, “With
what body of believers shall I unite?” Do not waste your time looking for
a perfect church. There is no perfect church. If you wait until you find
a perfect church before you unite with any, you will unite with none,
and thus you will belong to a church in which you are the only member
and that is the most imperfect church of all. I would rather belong to
the most imperfect Christian church I ever knew than not to belong to
any church at all. The local churches in Paul’s day were very imperfect
institutions. Let one read the epistles to the Corinthians and see how
imperfect was the church in Corinth, see how much there was that was evil
in it, and yet Paul never thought of advising any believer in Corinth
to get out of this imperfect church. He did tell them to come out of
heathenism, to come out from fellowship with infidels (2 Cor. 6: 14-18),
but not a word on coming out of the imperfect church in Corinth. He did
tell the church in Corinth to separate from their membership certain
persons whose lives were wrong (1 Cor. 5: 11, 12), but he did not tell
the individual members of the church in Corinth to get out of the church
because these persons had not yet been separated from their fellowship.
As you cannot find a perfect church, find the best church you can. Unite
with a church where they believe in the Bible and where they preach
the Bible. Avoid the churches where words are spoken open or veiled
that have a tendency to undermine your faith in the Bible as a reliable
revelation from God Himself, the all-sufficient rule of faith and
practice. Unite with a church where there is a spirit of prayer, where
the prayer-meetings are well kept up. Unite with a church that has a real
active interest in the salvation of the lost, where young Christians are
looked after and helped, where minister and people have a love for the
poor and outcast, a church that regards its mission in this world to
be the same as the mission of Christ, “to seek and to save the lost.”
As to denominational differences, other things being equal, unite with
that denomination whose ideas of doctrine and of government and of the
ordinances are most closely akin to your own. But it is better to unite
with a live church of some other denomination than to unite with a dead
church of your own. We live in a day when denominational differences are
becoming ever less and less, and oftentimes they are of no practical
consequence whatever; and one will often feel more at home in a church
of some other denomination than in any accessible church of his own
denomination. The things that divide the denominations are insignificant
compared with the great fundamental truths and purposes and faith that
unite them.
If you cannot find the church that agrees with the pattern set forth
above, find the church that comes nearest to it. Go into that church
and by prayer and by work try to bring that church as nearly as you can
to the pattern of what you think a church of Christ ought to be. But do
not waste your strength in criticism against either church or minister.
Seek for what is good in the church and in the minister and do your best
to strengthen it. Hold aloof firmly, though unobtrusively, from what is
wrong and seek to correct it. Do not be discouraged if you cannot correct
it in a day or a week or a month or a year. Patient love and prayer
and effort will tell in time. Drawing off by yourself and snarling and
grumbling will do no good. They will simply make you and the truths for
which you stand repulsive.
VII
BIBLE STUDY
There is nothing more important for the development of the spiritual life
of the Christian than regular, systematic Bible study. It is as true in
the spiritual life as it is in the physical life that health depends upon
what we eat and how much we eat. The soul’s proper food is found in one
book, the Bible. Of course, a true minister of the gospel will feed us on
the Word of God, but that is not enough. He feeds us but one or two days
in the week and we need to be fed every day. Furthermore, it will not
do to depend upon being fed by others. We must learn to feed ourselves.
If we study the Bible for ourselves as we ought to study it, we shall
be in a large measure independent of human teachers. Even if we are so
unfortunate as to have for our minister a man who is himself ignorant of
the truth of God we shall still be safe from harm.
We live in a day in which false doctrine abounds on every hand and the
only Christian who is safe from being led into error is the one who
studies his Bible for himself daily. The Apostle Paul warned the elders
of the church in Ephesus that the time was soon coming when grievous
wolves should enter in among them not sparing the flock and when of
their own selves men should arise speaking perverse things to draw away
the disciples after them, but he told them how to be safe even in such
perilous times as these. He said, “I commend you to God and to the
Word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an
inheritance among them which are sanctified.” Through meditation on the
Word of God’s grace they would be safe even in the midst of abounding
error on the part of the leaders in the church (Acts 20: 29-32). Writing
later to the Bishop of the church in Ephesus Paul said, “But evil men and
impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2
Tim. 3: 13, R. V.) but he goes on to tell Bishop Timothy how he and his
fellow believers could be safe even in such times of increasing peril as
were coming. That way was through the study of the Holy Scriptures, which
are able to make wise unto salvation (2 Tim. 3: 14, 15). “All Scripture,”
he adds, “is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the
man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
That is to say, through the study of the Bible one will be sound in
doctrine, will be led to see his sins and put them away, will find
discipline in the righteous life and attain unto complete equipment for
all good works. Our spiritual health, our growth, our strength, our
victory over sin, our soundness in doctrine, our joy and peace in Christ,
our cleansing from inward and outward sin, our fitness for service, all
depend upon the study of the Word of God. The one who neglects his Bible
is bound to make a failure of the Christian life. The one who studies his
Bible in the right spirit and by a true method is bound to make a success
of the Christian life.
This brings us face to face with the question, “What is the right way to
study the Bible?”
1. First of all, we should _study it daily_ (Acts 17: 11). This is of
prime importance. No matter how good the methods of Bible study that one
follows may be, no matter how much time one may put into Bible study now
and then, the best results can only be secured when one makes it a matter
of principle never to let a single day go by without earnest Bible study.
This is the only safe course. Any day that is allowed to pass without
faithful Bible study is a day thrown open to the advent into our hearts
and lives of error or of sin. The writer has been a Christian for more
than a quarter of a century and yet to-day he would not dare to allow
even a single day to pass over his head without listening to the voice
of God as it speaks to him through the pages of His Book. It is at this
point that many fall away. They grow careless and let a day pass, or even
several days pass, without going alone with God and letting Him speak to
them through His Word. Mr. Moody once wisely said, “In prayer we talk to
God. In Bible study, God talks to us, and we had better let God do most
of the talking.”
A regular time should be set apart each day for the study of the Bible.
I do not think it is well as a rule to say that we shall study so many
chapters in a day, for that leads to undue haste and skimming and
thoughtlessness, but it is well to set apart a certain length of time
each day for Bible study. Some can give more time to Bible study than
others, but no one ought to give less than fifteen minutes a day. I set
the time so low in order that no one may be discouraged at the outset.
If a young Christian should set out to give an hour or two hours a day
to Bible study, there is a strong probability that he would not keep
to the resolution and he might become discouraged. Yet I know of many
very busy people who have given the first hour of every day for years to
Bible study and some who have given even two hours a day. The late Earl
Cairns, Lord Chancellor of England, was one of the busiest men of his
day, but Lady Cairns told me a few months ago that no matter how late he
reached home at night he always arose at the same early hour for prayer
and Bible study. She said, “We would sometimes get home from Parliament
at two o’clock in the morning, but Lord Cairns would always arise at the
same early hour to pray and study the Bible.” Lord Cairns is reported as
saying, “If I have had any success in life, I attribute it to the habit
of giving the first two hours of each day to Bible study and prayer.”
It is important that one choose the right time for this study. Wherever
it is possible, the best time for this study is immediately after arising
in the morning. The worst time of all is the last thing at night. Of
course, it is well to give a little while just before we retire to Bible
reading, in order that God’s voice may be the last to which we listen,
but the bulk of our Bible study should be done at an hour when our minds
are clearest and strongest. Whatever time is set apart for Bible study
should be kept sacredly for that purpose.