Produced by Keith G. Richardson
THE OVERCOMING LIFE
AND OTHER SERMONS
By D. L. MOODY.
"_This is the victory that overcometh the, world, even our faith_."
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
New York Chicago Toronto
_Publishers of Evangelical Literature_
COPYRIGHTED 1896, BY Fleming H. Revell Company.
CONTENTS.
THE OVERCOMING LIFE
PART I. THE CHRISTIAN'S WARFARE
PART II. INTERNAL FOES
PART III. EXTERNAL FOES
RESULTS OF TRUE REPENTANCE
TRUE WISDOM
"COME THOU AND ALL THY HOUSE INTO THE ARK"
HUMILITY
REST
SEVEN "I WILLS" OF CHRIST
THE OVERCOMING LIFE.
PART I.
THE CHRISTIAN'S WARFARE.
I would like to have you open your Bible at the first epistle of John,
fifth chapter, fourth and fifth verses: "Whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the
world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he
that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"
When a battle is fought, all are anxious to know who are the victors.
In these verses we are told who is to gain the victory in life. When I
was converted I made this mistake: I thought the battle was already
mine, the victory already won, the crown already in my grasp. I
thought that old things had passed away, that all things had become
new; that my old corrupt nature, the Adam life, was gone. But I found
out, after serving Christ for a few months, that conversion was only
like enlisting in the army, that there was a battle on hand, and that
if I was to get a crown, I had to work for it and fight for it.
Salvation is a gift, as free as the air we breathe. It is to be
obtained, like any other gift, without money and without price: there
are no other terms. "To him that worketh not, but believeth." But on
the other hand, if we are to gain a crown, we must work for it. Let me
quote a few verses in First Corinthians: "For other foundation can no
man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if any man
buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay,
stubble; each man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall
declare it, because it is revealed in fire: and the fire itself shall
prove each man's work, of what sort it is. If any man's work shall
abide, which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's
work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be
saved; yet so as through fire."
We see clearly from this that we may be saved, but all our works
burned up. I may have a wretched, miserable voyage through life, with
no victory, and no reward at the end; saved, yet so as by fire, or as
Job puts it, "with the skin of my teeth." I believe that a great many
men will barely get to heaven as Lot got out of Sodom, burned out,
nothing left, works and everything else destroyed.
It is like this: when a man enters the army, he is a member of the
army the moment he enlists; he is just as much a member as a man who
has been in the army ten or twenty years. But enlisting is one thing,
and participating in a battle another. Young converts are like those
just enlisted.
It is folly for any man to attempt to fight in his own strength. The
world, the flesh and the devil are too much for any man. But if we are
linked to Christ by faith, and He is formed in us the hope of glory,
then we shall get the victory over every enemy. It is believers who
are the overcomers. "Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to
triumph in Christ." Through Him we shall be more than conquerors.
I wouldn't think of talking to unconverted men about overcoming the
world, for it is utterly impossible. They might as well try to cut
down the American forest with their penknives. But a good many
Christian people make this mistake: they think the battle is already
fought and won. They have an idea that all they have to do is to put
the oars down in the bottom of the boat, and the current will drift
them into the ocean of God's eternal love. But we have to cross the
current. We have to learn how to watch and fight, and how to overcome.
The battle is only just commenced. The Christian life is a conflict
and a warfare, and the quicker we find it out the better. There is not
a blessing in this world that God has not linked Himself to. All the
great and higher blessings God associates with Himself. When God and
man work together, then it is that there is going to be victory. We
are coworkers with Him. You might take a mill, and put it forty feet
above a river, and there isn't capital enough in the States to make
that river turn the mill; but get it down about forty feet, and away
it works. We want to keep in mind that if we are going to overcome the
world, we have got to work with God. It is His power that makes all
the means of grace effectual.
The story is told that Frederick Douglas, the great slave orator, once
said in a mournful speech when things looked dark for his race:--
"The white man is against us, governments are against us, the spirit
of the times is against us. I see no hope for the colored race. I am
full of sadness."
Just then a poor old colored woman rose in the audience, and said.--
"Frederick, is God dead?"
My friend, it makes a difference when you count God in.
Now many a young believer is discouraged and disheartened when he
realizes this warfare. He begins to think that God has forsaken him,
that Christianity is not all that it professes to be. But he should
rather regard it as an encouraging sign. No sooner has a soul escaped
from his snare than the great Adversary takes steps to ensnare it
again. He puts forth all his power to recapture his lost prey. The
fiercest attacks are made on the strongest forts, and the fiercer the
battle the young believer is called on to wage, the surer evidence it
is of the work of the Holy Spirit in his heart. God will not desert
him in his time of need, any more than He deserted His people of old
when they were hard pressed by their foes.
The Only Complete Victor.
This brings me to the fourth verse of the fourth chapter of the same
epistle: "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."
The only man that ever conquered this world--was complete victor--was
Jesus Christ. When He shouted on the cross, "It is finished!" it was
the shout of a conqueror. He had overcome every enemy. He had met sin
and death. He had met every foe that you and I have got to meet, and
had come off victor. Now if I have got the spirit of Christ, if I have
got that same life in me, then it is that I have got a power that is
greater than any power in the world, and with that same power I
overcome the world.
Notice that everything human in this world fails. Every man, the
moment he takes his eye off God, has failed. Every man has been a
failure at some period of his life. Abraham failed. Moses failed.
Elijah failed. Take the men that have become so famous and that were
so mighty--the moment they got their eye off God, they were weak like
other men; and it is a very singular thing that those men failed on
the strongest point in their character. I suppose it was because they
were not on the watch. Abraham was noted for his faith, and he failed
right there--he denied his wife. Moses was noted for his meekness and
humility, and he failed right there--he got angry. God kept him out of
the promised land because he lost his temper. I know he was called
"the servant of God," and that he was a mighty man, and had power with
God, but humanly speaking, he failed, and was kept out of the promised
land. Elijah was noted for his power in prayer and for his courage,
yet he became a coward. He was the boldest man of his day, and stood
before Ahab, and the royal court, and all the prophets of Baal; yet
when he heard that Jezebel had threatened his life, he ran away to the
desert, and under a juniper tree prayed that he might die. Peter was
noted for his boldness, and a little maid scared him nearly out of his
wits. As soon as she spoke to him, he began to tremble, and he swore
that he didn't know Christ. I have often said to myself that I'd like
to have been there on the day of Pentecost alongside of that maid when
she saw Peter preaching.
"Why," I suppose she said, "what has come over that man? He was afraid
of _me_ only a few weeks ago, and now he stands up before all
Jerusalem and charges these very Jews with the murder of Jesus."
The moment he got his eye off the Master he failed; and every man, I
don't care who he is--even the strongest--every man that hasn't Christ
in him, is a failure. John, the beloved disciple, was noted for his
meekness; and yet we hear of him wanting to call fire down from heaven
on a little town because it had refused the common hospitalities.
Triumphs of Faith.
Now, how are we to get the victory over all our enemies? Turn to
Galatians, second chapter, verse twenty: "I am crucified with Christ;
nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life
which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave Himself for me." We live by faith. We get this
life by faith, and become linked to Immanuel--"God with us." If I have
God for me, I am going to overcome. How do we gain this mighty power?
By faith.
The next passage I want to call your attention to is Romans, chapter
eleven, verse twenty: "Because of unbelief they were broken off; and
thou standest by faith." The Jews were cut off on account of their
unbelief: we were grafted in on account of our belief. So notice: We
live by faith, and we stand by faith.
Next: We walk by faith. Second Corinthians, chapter five, verse seven:
"For we walk by faith, not by sight." The most faulty Christians I
know are those who want to walk by sight. They want to see the
end--how a thing is going to come out. That isn't walking by faith at
all--that is walking by sight.
I think the characters that best represent this difference are Joseph
and Jacob. Jacob was a man who walked with God by sight. You remember
his vow at Bethel:--"If God will be with me, and will keep me in this
way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,
so that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the
Lord be my God." And you remember how his heart revived when he saw
the wagons Joseph sent him from Egypt. He sought after signs. He never
could have gone through the temptations and trials that his son Joseph
did. Joseph represents a higher type of Christian. He could walk in
the dark. He could survive thirteen years of misfortune, in spite of
his dreams, and then ascribe it all to the goodness and providence of
God.
Lot and Abraham are a good illustration Lot turned away from Abraham
and tented on the plains of Sodom. He got a good stretch of pasture
land, but he had bad neighbors. He was a weak character and he should
have kept with Abraham in order to get strong. A good many men are
just like that. As long as their mothers are living, or they are
bolstered up by some godly person, they get along very well; but they
can't stand alone. Lot walked by sight; but Abraham walked by faith;
he went out in the footsteps of God. "By faith Abraham, when he was
called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an
inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By
faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country,
dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of
the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations,
whose builder and maker is God." And again: We fight by faith.
Ephesians, sixth chapter, verse sixteen: "Above all, taking the shield
of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of
the wicked." Every dart Satan can fire at us we can quench by faith,
By faith we can overcome the Evil One. To fear is to have more faith
in your antagonist than in Christ.
Some of the older people can remember when our war broke out.
Secretary Seward, who was Lincoln's Secretary of State--a long-headed
and shrewd politician--prophesied that the war would be over in ninety
days; and young men in thousands and hundreds of thousands came
forward and volunteered to go down to Dixie and whip the South. They
thought they would be back in ninety days; but the war lasted four
years, and cost about half a million of lives. What was the matter?
Why, the South was a good deal stronger than the North supposed. Its
strength was underestimated.
Jesus Christ makes no mistake of that kind. When He enlists a man in
His service, He shows him the dark side; He lets him know that he must
live a life of self-denial. If a man is not willing to go to heaven by
the way of Calvary, he cannot go at all. Many men want a religion in
which there is no cross, but they cannot enter heaven that way. If we
are to be disciples of Jesus Christ, we must deny ourselves and take
up our cross and follow Him. So let us sit down and count the cost. Do
not think that you will have no battles if you follow the Nazarene,
because many battles are before you. Yet if I had ten thousand lives,
Jesus Christ should have every one of them. Men do not object to a
battle if they are confident that they will have victory, and, thank
God, every one of us may have the victory if we will.
The reason why so many Christians fail all through life is just
this--they under-estimate the strength of the enemy. My dear friend;
you and I have got a terrible enemy to contend with. Don't let Satan
deceive you. Unless you are spiritually dead, it means warfare. Nearly
everything around tends to draw us away from God. We do not step clear
out of Egypt on to the throne of God. There is the wilderness journey,
and there are enemies in the land.
Don't let any man or woman think all he or she has to do is to join
the church. That will not save you. The question is, are you
overcoming the world, or is the world overcoming you? Are you more
patient than you were five years ago? Are you more amiable? If you are
not, the world is overcoming you, even if you are a church member.
That epistle that Paul wrote to Titus says that we are to be sound in
patience, faith and charity. We have got Christians, a good many of
them, that are good in spots, but mighty poor in other spots. Just a
little bit of them seems to be saved, you know. They are not rounded
out in their characters. It is just because they haven't been taught
that they have a terrible foe to overcome.
If I wanted to find out whether a Man was a Christian, I wouldn't go
to his minister. I would go and ask his wife. I tell you, we want more
_home piety_ just now. If a man doesn't treat his wife right, I don't
want to hear him talk about Christianity. What is the use of his
talking about salvation for the next life, if he has no salvation for
this? We want a Christianity that goes into our homes and everyday
lives. Some men's religion just repels me. They put on a whining voice
and a sort of a religious tone, and talk so sanctimoniously on Sunday
that you would think they were wonderful saints. But on Monday they
are quite different. They put their religion away with their clothes,
and you don't see any more of it until the next Sunday. You laugh, but
let us look out that we don't belong to that class. My friend, we have
got to have a higher type of Christianity, or the Church is gone. It
is wrong for a man or woman to profess what they don't possess. If you
are not overcoming temptations, the world is overcoming you. Just get
on your knees and ask God to help you. My dear friends, let us go to
God and ask Him to search us. Let us ask Him to wake us up, and let us
not think that just because we are church members we are all right. We
are all wrong if we are not getting victory over sin.