Editor Doing Some Research.
EDITORIAL
Effie Orrilla Foss, a reader of Triumph, dedicated the following poem to the Editor of Triumph. She has other poems in print.
PERFECT LOVE
Now herein there lies a Secret--
Love we God "with ALL the heart?"
Of the world it must be emptied--
Christ be ALL and not a "part."
Not affection of the human--
"Natural" Love will not avail;
Romans "Five and Five" recordeth
LOVE that will not, cannot fail!
"Love of world and self" excluded--
By His Presence in the soul;
HE, the LOVE OF GOD, loves freely--
Where He hath complete control.
"Called in furnace of affliction?"--
It may be "His Purpose" kind;
"Glorify HIM in the fires"--
Be not to His Purpose blind.
HE, The "Perfect" One, doth ransom
All who "will," from self and sin;
Fills with LOVE and Trust and Power
"Temples" He is welcomed IN.
Christ will banish doubt and shadow--
When enthroned within thee "King";
"All things for my GOOD are working!"
Now my trusting heart doth sing.
See "Love of God in operation"--
First Corinthians and Thirteen;
Whatever be thy rank or station
May this "CHARITY" be seen!
"And we have KNOWN and BELIEVED the LOVE that God hath to us."
Sincerely,
Arthur E. Gordon, Editor
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Dear Shut-In . . .
EXCERPTS from
LILLIAN'S LETTERS
Have you ever felt like life was going terribly upside-down, inside-out for you . . . as though you must have taken the wrong road? You just surely must have, for your very all thrown into gear seemed not enough to pull you out of the rut and whirl of fumbled undreamed-of circumstances.
First Peter 4:12 says, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you." And verse 13: "But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy." Finish reading that wonderful chapter in some very troubled times.
My favorite verse is Romans 8:28: "All things work together for good to them that love God." In other words God might say, "This thing is from Me." Burdens, crosses are all paid for in God's own way, for our betterment. If earthly parents know how to give good gifts, how much more a loving God.
That burden, cross, the thing that seems so hard to accept as a blessing . . . the rough wrapping may hurt . . . may bring agonizing tears . . . may be heavy and without Faith, frightful. We've all gotten surprise packages, all wrapped in rough brown paper, perhaps wired shut or maybe with tough rope. Oh! from a friend, we note, and we anticipate with joy the opening of it. Why? Because we have faith. Perhaps it was what we asked for. We believe in the sender. They love us and would not betray our trust, not disappoint us.
We start working at it, but the sender wrapped it so well for the preciousness of its contents that perhaps we have to implore help. It takes time and patience, hope and desire not to give up on it all.
Determination is generated by faith and hope. We will win Our hands get a little sore and we very tired. We ache for the joy that all this hardship must lead to. Alas! the fetters are broken we get through to the jewel of experience. We have not been let down. It was worth all the effort.
Sometimes I think we Christians are too pessimistic. We should be filled with optimism. God will not fail. If God be for us who can be against us?
Do we really believe God? Do we believe His promises? God help us to count it all joy.
Someday there won't be the perplexing wrappings, heavy loads, the need of patient, consistent effort of pressing on. For a while we must toil and suffer. Remember, He who loves us planned this way for us.
He has promised never to leave nor forsake.
Surely we can see the touches of His love all along the way.
Miss Lillian Butt suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. Before her illness she was a nurse.
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Seek to be lamblike, without which all your efforts to do good to others will be as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
-- Robert M. McCheyne
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After Twenty-five Years of Suffering
By Martha Snell Nicholson
Martha Snell Nicholson suffered from an almost unbelievable list of diseases: tuberculosis, asthma, gall bladder infection, arthritis, ankhylosed spine, angina, sinus trouble, anemia, ulcers, amoeba, Parkinson's Disease, cancer. But in spite of the heavy burden she wrote and published seven books of poems, an autobiography and many tracts. In the summer of 1957 Mrs. Nicholson entered her heavenly reward. The following article is reprinted from her autobiography, His Banner Over Me, and is used by permission of Moody Press, Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, Illinois.
After twenty-five years of suffering Mrs. Nicholson could say ---
These were twenty-five years of lessons learned at the knee of God. Twenty-five years of frequent journeys to the very gates of Heaven. During this time He took from my clinging fingers their last treasures till at last I held my empty hands to Him; and so, being empty, they could be filled with His treasures. I look back over these years, the hardest and yet richest of my life.
1928-1953. I looked back over those twenty-five years. Sorrow and suffering have assailed me with their armies and their chariots. As I stood and watched them advance, I have known that since the battle was the Lord's, the victory was also His. Twenty-five years in which I became more intimately acquainted with Him whom to know is life eternal.
The Christ of the sickroom shows a very tender face to the shut-in.
Looking back, how clearly I can see from this vantage point, the road which once seemed so shrouded with clouds and darkness.
In spite of grief and illness I can truly say I am a happy woman. When I was an inarticulate child, if anyone had asked me why I was happy, I would have replied, "Because it is all true about Jesus." And now, with the silver in my hair and with my body bent and twisted, I can still think of no other way to express the reason for my joy than to say, "Because it is all true about the Lord Jesus Christ." All true that there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel's veins and that sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains . . .
My happiness is not based upon my own faith, which wavers; nor on my own good works, which as a basis of salvation are in His eyes as filthy rags, Not on my "experience," which is but a fitful human thing. But on the eternal fact that it is true about the lovely Son of God who sought me, found me, bought me, taught me; who lifted me out of the miry clay and set me upon a rock, accepted in the Beloved. (I found that the cleft of that rock was the secret place of the Most High, and the Shadow of the Almighty.) All true that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit; that nothing can separate me from the love of Christ. All true that NOW I am one of the sons of God and that it doth not yet appear what I shall be, but that when He shall appear, I shall be like Him.
All true that any day, any moment, He may come for His own. All true that at last I shall be rid of this suffering humiliating flesh; I shall meet again my dear ones; and more than all else, I shall behold with my own eyes that precious Lover of my soul. And so shall we ever be with the Lord.
It is all true that throughout my entire life His banner over me has been love, even though I knew it not.
All true that I shall spend time and eternity in His banqueting house with Him whom my soul loveth.
Oh, what does it matter if I suffer a little more here? Of what importance the manner of my going to Him?
O the keen rapture!
O dear delight,
When to my longing eyes faith becomes sight,
And my heart whispers,
"My Lord, it is Thee!"
O the sweet safety!
O the bright glory,
Every word true of that wonderful story;
O the fair morning
Dawning for me!
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Could we wish to skirt a wood where our Master waited to give us a word to lighten the dark woods of others? No, not even now, while the pressure is upon us, would we choose, if we might, to escape from this which is but for a moment, and which worketh that which is eternal. -- Amy Carmichael
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THE EXISTENCE OF CHRIST
By C. FILLMORE COBB, PASTOR
Old Wayne Baptist Church
Hammondsport, New York
TO EXIST means to be or to have reality or actual being. Existence is the state or fact of being, in specific manifestation. Let us consider manifestations of the existence of our Lord Jesus Christ.
"In the beginning was the Word" (John 1:1). This reveals the PRE-existence of the Lord. The Jews, while they listened to Jesus speak, declared, "We be Abraham's seed . . . art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead?" "Jesus saith unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am." In the prayer of our Lord recorded in the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John Jesus reveals His pre-existence when he says, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." In the Book of the Revelation, chapter 22 and verse 13, Jesus declares, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." Our Savior was not from the beginning but was in the beginning.
The CO-existence of the Lord is seen in the second clause of John 1:1 -- "and the Word was with God." Much is being said today about co-existence in one form and another but the co-existence that should headline the news of the gospel is that of the Father and the Son. Jesus stated in John 10:30, "I and my Father are one." And in verse 38 He said, " . . . the Father is in me, and I in him." God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, are of one mind and purpose regarding the redemption of man. Many today are without hope in this life and the life to come because the founders of their religions did not co-exist in the beginning with God. Our salvation is founded on Christ who by His very nature existed in perfect harmony with the Father, and "being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." (Philippians 2:6).
"And the Word was God" (John 1:1). This forever shatters any argument against the DIVINE existence of our Lord. The divinity of Christ is a subject much discussed in the realm of orthodox and unorthodox thinking. I knew a man who advocated that Jesus did not exist until He was born a babe in the manger and that He became divine at His Baptism in the River Jordan. Such is error, for "the Word was God" in the beginning. Christ has always been divine. The Lord Jesus did not become the Son; God said, "This is my Son." In Luke 22:70 Jesus was asked, "Art thou then the Son of God? And he said unto them, Ye say that I am." Paul in his letter to the Romans declares Him "to be the Son of God with power . . . by the resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:4). Mohammed, Confucius, and Buddha are still in their graves so they were never divine. They have left their followers without hope. But there is no doubt about Christ "for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." (Colossians 2:9)
Many of us are passive in our reaction to the CREATIVE existence of the Son. And yet "all things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made" (John 1:3). The very first mention of God in the Bible carries the thought of a plurality of Persons. (Genesis 1:1). And in Genesis 1:26 God says, "let us make man in our image, after our likeness." The Father was not alone in the beginning. We are taught in Colossians concerning Christ: "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible . . . all things were created by him and for him." (Colossians 1:16). In Matthew 8:26 and 27 we hear Jesus rebuking His disciples in the tempest tossed boat: "Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm. But the men marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!" It is no wonder that the elements should obey His voice; He created them.
It is a comfort to know that the Savior is SELF-existent. "In him was life" (John 1:4). In the early years of my ministry while teaching Bible Doctrine to a group of young people, I asked what was meant when we say God is self-existent. A boy of 11 years answered by saying, "It means, sir, that He just keeps Himself a goin." Since our Lord does not draw his life from an outside source there is no danger that He will cease to exist, for He is life. In John 11:25 Jesus says, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." God declares, "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (I John 5:12). It is a common experience to burn oneself out seeking the comforts of life while at the same time failing to experience life eternal in the Son. Our Lord is life to as many as receive Him, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)
John says, "and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4). This informs us of the LUMINOUS existence of the Lord Jesus. John continues: "That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (v.9). And elsewhere John says, "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." (I John 1:5). To the Pharisees Jesus asserted, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). When Isaiah prophesied of the Lord's entrance into the world, he said, "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in a land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined" (Isaiah 9:2). It is no wonder that the redeemed can say, "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (II Corinthians 4:6). We may be assured of light here and hereafter, for John again is inspired to write, "And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." (Revelation 21:23).
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I AM GLORIFIED IN THEM
Yes, He could say it of Peter, preaching at Pentecost;
He could say it of John, on Patmos Island lost;
He could say it of Stephen, dying willingly;
But can He say it of me? Is He glorified in me?
What of the times I've been fearful, yet failed to hold His hand?
What of the times I've doubted, not seeing the way He planned?
What of the times I've been selfish, failing His gifts to see?
What of the times I've failed Him? Is He glorified in me?
What of my failure to gather treasures out of His Word?
What of my shameful neglect to witness for my Lord?
What of the sorrow and heartache I've not borne trustingly?
What of my slackened communion? Is He glorified in me?
Master, forgive my failures; forgive my wasted days;
Make me a channel of blessing, my life a song of praise.
Master, thou knowest I love Thee; shed forth Thy love in me;
And some day I'll hear Thee whisper, "I am glorified in thee."
-- Cosa Elizabeth Reynolds
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SERMON SERIES
THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER
No. 13
It Does Matter How You Act!
I Peter 2:11-12
YOURS IS A wonderful position as a child of God. "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people," says the Bible.
It necessarily follows that you live in harmony with this exalted position. And thus Peter makes a strong appeal to you for this very thing: "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims . . ." His appeal is directed to you as one beloved of God and as one who is a stranger and a pilgrim to this world's system.
May we take seriously his exhortation to, first -- "ABSTAIN FROM FLESHLY LUSTS, which war against the soul . . . " (11b)
Don't think for a moment that when you become a child of God the war is over between the flesh and the soul. It is just then really begun in earnest. Up till that point the soul and body fraternized with each other. The soul enjoyed the body's excesses and the body enjoyed the soul's smile of approval.
But when the soul is converted and begins to look up through the renewed spirit toward God, it begins accordingly to crave the things of God. But you may be sure Mr. Worldly-wise Flesh is not to be pushed aside so easily. He is still to be heard from. The battle is on.
If the flesh finds it cannot win by a frontal attack it will attack secretly and on the sly. The Greeks first assaulted Troy in open war but with little success. Finally they resorted to the strategy of the much celebrated wooden horse, from which the armed warriors descended into the heart of the city in the dead of night to wreak their havoc. So will the lusts of the flesh assault our redeemed souls. It may be a seemingly small thing which is permitted to enter our lives, but ere long a breach is made that is great enough for a flood of iniquity to flow in. We find our soul on the defensive, battered and bruised, and all but captured.
The lusts of the flesh may take many forms. Even otherwise good things may become fleshly lusts. God has created within each of us certain natural desires and appetites. But when these become distorted they become lusts. Our body desires and needs food; but when we get into the state where we live to eat, rather that eat to live, then natural appetite has become fleshly lust. We have been given natural and good sexual drives; but when these go beyond their God-ordained limits of husband for wife and wife for husband, then what is normal has become abnormal and lustful. Our body was so constituted as to need rest and relaxation; but when we live only and continually for the weekend outing, then it has descended into fleshly lust. And "when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin . . . death."
"But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation . . . " In fact, the war with your flesh has actually already been won. The battle, however, may or may not be won. There is a difference between a war and a battle.
When our company reached the Elbe River in Germany during the second world war, the war was for all practical purposes over. The Russians and Americans were within only a few days of meeting. Everyone knew the victory belonged to our side. Even the Germans knew.
But this didn't deter a strong German outfit from fighting on. In fact, shortly after we crossed the Elbe, this German force surrounded our entire company, with the except of a few of us who escaped by the "skin of our teeth," and captured it to a man and marched them away to a concentration camp where they stayed until the actual cessation of hostilities. We who escaped were obliged to flee the area "post-haste." We had lost the battle, although the war was won.
Brethren, our redeemed souls cannot be lost. We are saved for eternity. The flesh will not win the war. It may win the battle here, however. But it need not even win the battle. Ample provision has been made for our victory all the way. Our text says, "abstain from fleshly lusts." "Abstain" may be translated "hold yourself aloof." In class-conscious societies they know what this means. The upper class does everything in its power to avoid contact with the lower class. Such should be our determination with relation to the lusts of our lower nature.
Three things may be noted of the classes in a class-conscious society: they dress differently, they live differently, and they are committed to different ideals. May not we find in these the secret of keeping ourselves aloof from lusts?
The Bible declares: "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof" (Romans 13:14). And again: "Walk (or live) in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16). And again: "Neither yield ye your members . . . unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God" (Romans 6:13). Dressed-up in Jesus, living in the Spirit, and yielded unto God you are not soon going to surrender to the terms of the flesh. May we thus "abstain from fleshly lusts." "HAVING YOUR CONVERSATION HONEST among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation." (12)
Peter pleads in the negative when he says, "abstain." Now he makes his plea in the positive: "Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles." "Conversation" refers to conduct, behavior, or manner of life. "Honest" means beautiful -- beautiful by reason of purity of heart and life. Thus we may read: "Having your behavior beautiful among the Gentiles." The same word is translated below, "good works;" thus, beautiful works."
Paul exhorts in a similar way: "Provide things honest," or more literally, "Provide things beautiful in the sight of all men." And why shouldn't we, when our Lord actually says of himself, "I am the Beautiful Shepherd?"
But we have still another incentive in our text to act honourably among our neighbors: "that . . . they may . . . glorify God in the day of visitation."
There will be some who believe in our "Beautiful Shepherd" as a result of beholding our beautiful conduct. These will be saved. Of course these will "glorify God in the day of visitation." But let's face it, there will be many more who will not believe, no matter how godly a life we live. What of these? "They even speak against (us) as evildoers." Will they too glorify God in that coming day of judgment? Indeed they will. But you may be wondering just how this could be.
Briefly, they will glorify God in their eternal destruction. This may seem harsh at first, yet it is absolutely true. Although the Lord has "no pleasure in the death of the wicked," and "is not willing that any should perish," it nevertheless remains true that "the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven . . . in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord." And this judgment will bring glory to God.
We hear much in our day of the love of God, as if this meant that He must condone sin. But we must not forget that God has another attribute called righteousness. As a righteous God he cannot condone nor wink at sin; He must deal with it in judgment. And this He has done.
"The wages of sin is death," declares God's Word, "but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Sin was effectively dealt with on the cross. Christ Himself paid in full the debt of sin. God's wrath against sin was fully poured out upon His own Son as He hung of Calvary's Tree. Man could now go scot-free merely by believing in Christ as his own personal Savior. God could now be perfectly just in forgiving man and giving him eternal life. (Romans 3:25,26)
But this still leaves a problem, what of those who will not believe in Christ, who will not receive God's gift? Let it be said categorically, they must bear their own judgment for sin. And God is perfectly just and righteous in judging them.
In the awful day of God's wrath against the sinner an angel is heard by John to say, "Thou are righteous, O Lord, because thou hast judged thus." Elsewhere the Bible says, "it is a righteous thing with God to recompense (repay) tribulation to them . . ." If God did not judge the unbelieving sinner He would be unjust and wholly out of keeping with His righteous character. Such could not be.
Thus when the unbeliever perishes "in the day of visitation," he will thereby glorify God -- he will glorify God by displaying God's righteousness. And our text says that our consistent Christian living will be an added testimony against the unbeliever in that day.
The writer to the Hebrews says of that righteous man, Noah, that he, "being divinely warned about things as yet unseen, reverently gave heed and built an ark for the safety of his family; and by this act he condemned the world . . . " We play a similar role in this age, condemning the worldling by our righteous acts. "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink," says the Bible, "for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head." Our lives will indeed be to some "the savour of life unto life," for which we thank the Lord, but unto others our lives will be "the savour of death unto death."
This is not to say that we have any pleasure in the death of the wicked nor do we wish anyone to perish, in fact our whole being cries out for their salvation, but we are jealous above everything else for God's glory.
And God will be glorified. He will be glorified whether by the salvation of the believer or the condemnation of the unbeliever. He will be glorified whether we behave beautifully or not. But oh how much better for us, if we bring God glory by our consistent living. And how much better for the sinner, if he brings glory to God by his salvation rather than his condemnation.
One concluding thought. Brethren, the world is watching you. The word in the text which is translated "behold," means to look upon or view attentively. It has the idea of an overseer. The unsaved folks around you have set themselves up as your overseers. They are watching your every move. Need I then repeat the title to this message? --
IT DOES MATTER HOW YOU ACT!
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