T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
June, 1939
220
time against the sentence of death. The will of God for every one of His children is that they shall be sanctified, that is, separated utterly unto Himself. But the moment you set yourself toward that goal, the powers of darkness set themselves on the move to oppose you. Cross the Jordan that sepa rates you from that old complacent, self- satisfied, carnal existence, and the Canaan- ites and Amalekites and all the other “ites” of the flesh will swarm about your ears. But One mightier than the mighty, the Cap tain of the Lord’s host is there with the drawn sword to lead you always in triumph if you will but yield the command to Him. The Challenge of Christ "Strength to suffer!" Is not that just the challenge of Christ to a generation grown flabby through self-indulgence? I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake” was not meant alone for Saul of Tarsus. “If any man will come after me”—you see there are no exemptions in this warfare-—"if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." Self-denial—- how it has been degraded by the caricatures which limit it to special periods and special occasions! As if the sloughing off of a few more or less unimportant indulgences for a limited time gave the right to indulge the flesh the rest of the time! No! No! That is not at all the thing that Christ had in mind. His challenge and His call go deeper than this superficial thing we call self-denial. It is a call to say a final, irrevocable "NO !” to this thing we call ourselves. And that is only another way of saying that by the operation of the Holy Spirit the self life has been put to death and that henceforth to live is Christ, His will, His purpose dominant in every way in every thing.
I have often wondered just how much is involved in that challenging word of the Lord in Hebrews 12:4: “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” But this I do know; it cuts straight across our easy-going unconcern, our self-satisfied complacency. It is a challenge to such a complete renunciation of self, such a reso lute refusal to listen to the clamorous de mands of the self life, and such an utter abandonment to the will of God as we have never known before. Listen! The Lord of Life is standing within the shadow of the cross. He is say ing something to His disciples, and to you and me as well: ”1 lay down my life . . . No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have pow er to lay it down." Was ever such power seen before? Hanging the earth upon nothing (Job 26:7) was child’s play in comparison, for this is the final act in redemption, when the re sources of God are exhausted to bring man back to God. "Last o f all he sent unto them his son.” There was nothing else that God could do. You remember that dramatic moment when Pilate said to the scourged and thorn- crowned One before him: “Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?” And Jesus looked into the eyes of Pilate, proud representative of earthly power, and calmly replied: “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.” And He went out from that presence, not the victim of Jewish hate, nor yet of Roman power, but the glo rious Victor, right through to the trium phant mom when death and hell acknowl edged defeat. What was it then that held Him on the cross through those long torturing hours while, the mob surged around, mocking and
jeering and taunting Him, daring Him to come down and by coming down to prove that He was a king? It had been easy enough for Him to have come down. But what held Him? Those nails in hands and feet? No! NO! L ov e alone held Him there, held Him until in the sovereign majesty of His own will He was ready to say those wonderful words, “It is finished,” words which constitute the emancipation procla mation of heaven to a world enslaved by sin and held captive by Satan at his will. “I beseech you therefore . . . by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a liv ing sacrifice . . . unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Can you do anything less than that? DEATH’S GLORIOUS BENEFITS “Fruit is never borne by doing; Fruit is always borne by dying.” —C ulbertson . To die is gain. Paul knew. It was his experience to “die daily.” To all his claims for righteous “doing,” Paul died as he traveled the Damascus road, and his resur rection life in Christ began when he cried, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” To physical comforts he learned also to die. He was “thrice beaten with rods, . . . in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, . . . in weariness and painfulness”—accepting these conditions not merely resignedly, but actu ally with a sense of glorying in them for the gospel’s sake. He died to the demand for human sympathy. “All men forsook me,” he declared, without rancour. “Notwith standing the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me.” Except through the im parted grace of God, no man dies willingly. It is easier to do, than to die. “Feverishly busy, and sadly barren”-—is this God’s ap praisal of your Christian life?
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VICTORIA FALLS Rhodesia, Africa Discovered by David Livingstone A. D. 1855 At the Confluence of the Kuando and Zambesi Rivers, 1,000 Miles from the Sea
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