King's Business - 1914-01

THE KING’; continues the existence of the body, but by the Word incarnate, and every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. We know God through His Word, and there comes jo us eternal life through this knowledge of God. Not existence, (bear that, , Ira ' mind ! Hence eternal death is not annihila­ tion—that is, the ceasing of existence. Eternal death is eternal ignorance of God. Man shall live by this knowl­ edge o f God. We have not time' to develop that further. Notice the appeal to the spir­ itual nature. Satan did not continue; the.tactics ; that’ hf had pursued with Ève any ' further ; he saw, it .was no ’ ttsp. He said ‘to Eve, “ Hath Go,ci said?” | Eve sani, '“ He hasX,He has spoken.” Then he bqgan to deceive her and say, “ Ye shall not die.” Ho knew he could not .'deceive the Lord Jestis so ‘he accepts the revelation and says, “ Yes. Now come with me to the top of the temple tower. Look down upon thè people. You have heard the. voice from heaven, ‘This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.’ Show to the people that you are God. Cast thyself down. iViake a spectacular display o f thy power. There is no need of going by the Cross and the resurrection to establish your Deity; establish it by,this wonderful sign here in the presence of the- peo­ ple. For it is written.” Then Jesus said, “ It is written again.” The Lord always meets dis­ located Scripture by another Scrip­ ture. “ It is written again.” It is the “ agpirts” that confound the Devil He can take one passage of Scripture and do what he pleases with it; it is the “ agains” that put him to silence. It is the consensus of Scripture that gives us the mind o f God. I f you will turn to Psalm 91 and“read what the Devil quoted you will see his • stratagem again. He leaves out just one little phrase. “He shall .give his angels charge oyer thee to keep thee,” said I

BUSINESS 11 Satan. That is all he said, but the Psalm says, “He, shall give his angels fharge over thee tp keep thee in all thy ways.” There is no. promise to keep him in the- ways of the Devil. Oh, no, not a. bit, but in the ways o f’ God. “ He shall keep thee in all thy ways.” Satan takes just that portion of Scrip­ ture that sqits,.his purpose, you.see, All of it is true, but it is not the whole truth. Hp takes.the Scripture,..and he passes it off, in a sense for more than it is worth, . The picture, that you see of Satan with forked .tail and. snorting fire'.you had better blot out. Paul tells us in ? Corinthians .il r14 that he is now an a.Ugel, “ a messenger of light,” Satan himself,is transformed into an angel o f light and . he wants his ministers to be ministers o f righteousness .1 It is thè mission o f Satan to give light, but-eounterfeit light. And the very attributes o f our Lord —Oh, we must say it gently—the very attributes o f our Lord he counterfeits. I have heard imen preach who would not mention the blood, who did not bow the hnee to Christ, who had re­ jected His Deity, and everything fun­ damental to Christianity, and yet praised the Lord Jesus Christ in a way that thrilled me. They would speak o f His manliness, His purity,' His sympathy, His love, and,- taking the very attributes o f Jesus, would shine away the offense o f the cross and the atoning blood -by the vèry’ light that comes from the human nature o f Jesus Christ our Lord. That is'what Satan is at to-dày; he takes a dislocated passage o f Scrip­ ture and he builds a ‘ whole 'system upon that, and the Lord says to him, It is written again.” Look through the Bible and get the consensus o f truth. Next Satan makes an appeal to the moral nature of. jChrist. Spirituality means our relation to God. IVIorality means, in a limited sense, our relation

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