Christ Is Victor - May/June 2012

There are always certain danger signals which become quite evident, when one’s physical or spiritual health declines.We respond to signs of physical deterioration by running instantly to a trusted doctor for advice and treatment.We are certainly not indifferent to the danger signals which could mean an impending heart attack.I simply can’t understand, how thinking people can be indifferent to the moral decay around them and in their own families.

Jeremiah, who wept over the sins of Israel not only saw the deep spiritual and moral decline but also warned them of the imminent Judgment of God.Had the people of Israel heeded his timely warning and repented of their sins, they would have saved themselves and their children, from innumerable ills and sufferings.

I have noticed that in most people, when they have committed a tragic blunder or grieved God greatly, there comes a period of deep darkness, when they seem quite incapable of seeing or recognizing their fallen state.This period of spiritual blindness lasts long enough to do serious damage to a person or family.By the time they awake, it is often too late to undo the harm. Irreparable loss is sustained and the children are ruined.The pain and loss due to the initial disobedience remains for generations.The marks of our disobedience are plainly printed on our posterity.

When the fruit of youthful sins and the effects of the disobedience of later years are so devastating, how deeply one should repent for every deflection from the path of holiness and seek Christ’s pardon with real brokenness!

Jeremiah laments, “Renew our days as of old.”This is not a mere nostalgic reference to the “good old days.”Sometimes this phrase can be very misleading. In our days knowledge has greatly increased. Hence rapid changes are taking place around us.The strangle-hold of some superstitious traditions are broken and with the rubbish, some useful standards of conduct too have been discarded.The sacred institute of marriage is being belittled by those who break God’s laws and wreck their own homes.

From twenty years to thirty, it is a pretty fast lap in the race of life. By the time the wildly speculating and dashing twenty-year-olds crash through the thirty-year barrier, they are disillusioned, broken, haggard, weary and jaded.What is more, some of them are bitter and frustrated.They simply want to forget their teenage years and their wild-twenties.

Jeremiah knew that God had promised His children that they would be the head and not the tail if they would obey His laws and statutes (Deut. 28:13). Further, the unerring manner in which God had led His children out of their slavery in Egypt, across the Red Sea and through the wilderness, where nothing practically grew, was indelibly written on the consciousness of Jeremiah.Thus, it was quite natural for him to pray, “Lord come back to us, Lord renew us.”

True spiritual renewal is necessary for every child of God, for every church or missionary fellowship like ours. The Lord Jesus said that the word of God is like a mustard seed.What an insignificant and tiny little thing is the mustard seed!But life comes out of it and it grows, until the birds can come and lodge on its branches.So does new life grow in a humble and broken-hearted man.

When the new life begins, significant things begin to happen.Where life had become dull, painful and boring, new strength and grace break forth. How many have told me of their thoughts and plans to end their lives. In the midst of their gloom and darkness, the Lord Jesus suddenly met them. Their lives were so completely transformed that none would recognize them as the same people.

It is the powers of darkness which tell you, “End it all, one leap, one plunge, one gulp of poison and it is all over.Your misery will end.”No, that is not true.Real misery begins in hell, ‘where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.’It is an awful sin to attempt to kill yourself.God says, “Thou shall not kill.”Death is no cure for any one’s misery but it only adds agony and sorrow to those around you.

Let us be positive, let us give one chance to God.When you study the Bible and begin to tell your need to the Living and Loving God, hope begins to break out and trust in the Saviour who cares, begins to warm your cold heart.

Have you lost your health?Ask the Lord Jesus to give it back.I well remember the doctor who was brought to my boyhood home in a taxi.The sad-looking wife and the taxi-driver helped the paralytic into the house.My father prayed for him.A few days after, the same man walked away unaided from our house.Ask the Lord to renew your health.

There are many today who have weak nerves.I tell them, “Ask Jesus to give you new nerves, strong nerves.”Where there is lovelessness, much negative talk and bitterness, there is ample chance to get bad nerves.Love is the cure.

Our God is the God of new beginnings.He is the God of Renewal and Revival.When an old car is junked after several years of use, no one attempts to repair it.Your life may seem to be beyond repair, you have wrecked and damaged it so greatly, but Jesus is able to renew you completely.That is why the unique term is applied to Him.He is the Saviour indeed!Let us not allow our pride to be a stumbling block to our progress.

"A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked." Psalm 37.16

These days men always seek after riches. Their trust is in riches. But the Lord says that the little a righteous man has, brings him security and happiness. Those who know God wish to be rich in divine nature which is a great blessing. Such a man spreads joy and health wherever he goes. He is a stable man. "Trust in the Lord, and do good: so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight yourself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." (Psalm 37: 3,4).

You can only delight yourself in the Lord by delighting in His way of life. "Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in His commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon the earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed" (Psalm 112: 1,2 ).

Delighting in the commands of the Lord - not grudgingly following the Lord. They may not make you rich, they may not make you big and prominent, but they will secure to you the nature of God, which was revealed in Jesus Christ. This is a great blessing. It will give you peace. "What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace and pursue it." Psalm 34: 12-14).

Seek peace and pursue it because you are the children of the Prince of peace. You may live in a small lodging and eat the simplest food, but if you have the peace of God and the nature of Christ, you are a blessed man. There can be no peace in the forest among the wild beasts. There is no peace in the hearts of men. There is war in the heart. "From whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?" James 4;1. Man is a disturbed being. He does not know himself or what he wants. He seeks riches. That will not bring him peace. Those who seek the nature of Christ will have peace. A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. A truly righteous man will not set his mind on riches.

All the laws of God contribute to the health of man. There are several principles to be followed when you build a house. Even to build a wall one has to follow certain rules. Other principles are used in fixing the beams and so on. Similarly in building up your life, God gives you several principles and one of them is not to seek riches but to seek God's nature. "I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found." Psalm 37: 35,36.

The Lord knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be forever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." Psalm 37; 18,19, 25. God is very particular about the children of a righteous man. A man who does not stretch out his hand for unrighteous money but works hard and looks to God will be filled. He seeks the riches of heaven and exercises himself to seek these riches morning, noon and night. He will have no war in his heart.

God promises ultimately to put His law in your mind and write them on your heart. The mind controls the nervous reactions. The heart controls your desires and will. Men run after wealth and do not seek the eternal wealth - the righteousness of God. How can a man who does not give thought to set right his moral and spiritual life be a righteous man? People give all sorts of excuses to come and worship God. Has anyone in the world suffered by spending time for God? Have they not gone forward and become leaders? Some of you will surely become missionaries. A man who knows his Bible and knows to pray will surely become a missionary some day. Do not run here and there to all meetings. Your time is limited. It is better to grow steadily in one place. Those who run here and there and everywhere gather nothing. We do not feel superior to others.

God has a special purpose for us and we have to fulfill it. The work of Moses was different from that of Joshua, and the work of Joshua was different from that of Nehemiah. If Nehemiah had followed Joshua what would have happened? He would have gone on fighting battles and winning more land to no purpose. God has got a purpose for us. We do not claim to know much. But unfalteringly by His grace, we are following the truth revealed.

O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good; for his mercies endureth for ever. Ps 107, 1

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ living and incarnate.

Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy for which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him. Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs the Son of God his life, and it is grace because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: "Ye were bought at a price" and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon His Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.

God's best men and women have been reared by a mother's prayers and vows, and a fathers's solemn consecration. Blessed indeed is the life of a man or woman, boy or girl, who has been heralded into the world not only by pain but also by prayer - their advent prefaced by the hand of a father or mother laying hold upon God.

It is said that the true secret of greatness is often traced to a mother's prayers and personal piety. In the diary of a Christian mother was inscribed this record: "This morning I rose very early to pray for my children, especially that my sons may be ministers and missionaries of Jesus Christ". Her life corresponded to her piety, and her influence on her children was blessed. Her prayers on their behalf were abundantly answered. Her eight children were all trained up for God. Five of her sons became ministers and missionaries of Jesus Christ, and the others were well known in the Christian church.

It is recorded in the life of Mrs. Winslow that she determined with God's blessing that every one of her family would appear with her at God's right hand. She wrestled long in prayer; but not in vain, for she had the joy of seeing each of them brought to the knowledge of the Saviour.

When Moffat's mother pleaded with him to accept Christ as his Saviour, she never thought that God in answer to her prayers would fill his renewed soul with such amazing zeal for the salvation of the heathen, and crown his labours with such abundant success.

It is said that John Newton learned to pray at his mother's knee, and such was the influence of her life upon his mind that, although she was called to her heavenly Home before her son John was eight years of age. In later years, when at sea and in the midst of dangers, his agonizing prayer was, "My mother's God, Thou God of mercy, have mercy upon me." The prayer was heard, and from the time of his conversion the name of John Newton has been honoured in the churches.

It was through Newton that Thomas Scott, the commentator, was led to Christ, as also Wilberforce, the champion for the emancipation of slaves and the author of Practical Views of Christianity, which led Leigh Richmond into the ministry for Christ, Jonathan Edwards, Bishop Hall, Philip Henry, Hooker, Payson, Doddridge, and the Wesleys - all had praying mothers, to which through God they attributed the secret for their success.

"When I was a boy," said a very noted man, "my mother used to bid me kneel beside her, and place her hand upon my head while she prayerd. Before I was old enough to know her worth, she died; and I was left to my own guidance. Like others, I was inclined to evil passions, but often felt myself checked, and , as it were, drawn by a soft hand upon my head. When I was a young man, I travelled in foreign lands and was exposed to many temptations, but when I would have yielded, that same hand was upon my head and I was saved. I seemed to feel its pressure as in the days of my happy childhood, and sometimes there came with it a solemn voice saying 'Do not this great wickedness, my son, and sin against God.'

Many years ago there was a mother in Somerville, NJ, whose son, a young man, began to lead a dissolute life. One evening she begged him not to spend that evening away from her, but he declared that he would. He said,"Mother, I am not going to be tied to your apron string; I am going to go." The mother replied,"Please try to remember that every moment tonight, until you come back, I am going to be on my knees asking God to save you."

The son, with a rude gesture and muttered oath, rushed from her presence, and spent the night in a shameful carousal. It was four o'clock in the morning when he got home. He had managed to keep his mother out of his mind during his revelry. As he got to the house, he saw a light shining through the shutters. Looking in, he saw his mother on her knees and heard her prayer, 'God, save my wandering boy."

Going to his room, he threw himself on his bed, but could not sleep. After a while he arose, then knelt down, and it seemed to him that Christ's power proceeded from the room where his wrestling mother was pleading with God, and it lead him to cry out ," God, be merciful to me a sinner." That very morning he was saved.

The news of his salvation soon spread in the neighbourhood. In three weeks from that time more than two hundred young people had been converted. This young man was the father of Dr T. De Witt Talmage.

This newsletter is produced six times per year by the Laymen’s Evangelical Fellowship International. It is printed and distributed in the US, UK, Germany, Singapore, Canada, and Australia and is supported by unsolicited sacrificial gifts of young people. For a free subscription or for other enquiries, please contact any of the addresses below.

This Fellowship is an inter-denominational missionary and prayer group working for revival in churches and amongst students in several countries. We invite every layperson to become God’s ally in changing his or her corner of the world. We train people in evangelistic work and to be self-supporting missionaries.