King's Business - 1915-07

THE KING’S BUSINESS

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personality, for it makes the temptations of our Lord Jesus Christ in the wilderness to arise from the inward solicitations to do evil suggested by His own heart. Here too we are thrown back upon faith in the mighty Son of God for deliverance. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adver­ sary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour;. whom resist, steadfast in the faith,” 1 Peter v:8, 9. “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony,” Rev. xii :11. Face the dreadful adversary and foul accuser with the blood of the Lamb, clinging to the faithful word, and then you will find how true is the promise, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you,” Jas. iv:7. Above all, keep Him in view, “who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authori­ ties and powers being made subject unto Him,” 1 Peter iii :22; and who has said, “I cannot, I will not leave thee; no, in­ deed, I cannot, I will not forsake thee,” Hebrew xiii :5. Blessed be His name, the time is coming soon for His glorious ap­ pearing, when “the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly,” Rom xvi :20.

Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh,” Gal. v:16. Be clothed with Christ as with a familiar garment, not nourishing the flesh by your conversation, conduct, habits, reading ; walk in the Spirit, and the flesh will not get the upper hand. But remember, it is there, and needs to be watched like a slumbering tiger. THE DEVIL The third enemy is the devil, not a prin­ ciple of evil, as some foolishly say, but a living, active, experienced, malignant, pow­ erful person, called a “man-murderer” and a “liar,” John viii:44; “Satan,” John xiii:27; “the prince of this world,” John x v i:ll; “the god of 'this world,” 2 Cor. iv :4; “the prince of the power of the air,” Eph. ii :2; “that old serpent,” Rev. xii:10, with vast hosts of demons under his control, so that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but ■against principalities, against powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against wicked spirits in the heavenlies,” Eph. vi:12. The phrase, “a principle of evil,” has no meaning, -for really there can be no such thing. Our Lord and the Holy Ghost constantly •speak of the devil as a real, hateful, terrible person; and it comes perilously nigh to blasphemy to deny his

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