[February 15th, 1857.]
We are subjected to an inevitable conflict. It cannot be avoided by flight, by surrender, or by refusing to resist. It is a conflict, not for house and home, nor for liberty or security, but of life and death; not of the body, but of the soul; not temporal, but eternal. The enemy is sometimes designated as Satan and the powers of darkness, sometimes as the world, and sometimes as our own evil hearts, or ourselves. These all constitute one. They are different powers of the kingdom of darkness. Satan is the god of this world. The world is subject to him, and constitutes one large corps of his army; and the flesh, i.e., our fallen nature, is his ally.
I. What is meant by the world, and what is it to overcome the world? 1. The world is often a collective term for the things seen and temporal. 2. It is often a collective term for mankind. The question is, which is to govern the soul, God or the world? And this includes, (a.) Which is to govern, or to determine our convictions? We are under the strongest possible temptation to allow our convictions to be determined by the apparent, by nature, by what is visible, or by the authority of men. Our convictions, both as to what is true and as to what is right, are, in a multitude of cases, controlled by what we see, (we cannot believe in the invisible and eternal), or by the opinions of the community to which we belong. Our life is but a particle in the general life of the world. We are controlled by the latter in our judgments. Where is the man that rises superior to his age, or nation, or his Church? Or if he assert his independence, it is only the independence of himself as a creature, and that is only another form of subjection to the devil. (b.) The danger is still greater as regards our affections. The world, and God; the visible, and the invisible; the present, and the eternal. The former address our senses, our constitutional principles. They are ever present. They operate upon us without cessation. The consequence is, that with the vast majority of men the visible is everything. They have their hearts, their hopes, their fears, all directed to the present. They have all their sources of happiness here. Their life is absorbed in what is seen and temporal. (c.) It is obvious that what determines our convictions, and engrosses our affections, will control our actions. Our energies will be directed to the objects which have this influence, and our whole outward life will have reference to them.
II. Now, the question is, what will enable us to overcome the world? What will enable us to emancipate ourselves from its control, and to live under the controlling influence of God and his word? What will enable us to have our intellect, affections, and outward life filled with the thoughts of God, and of divine things? to have our hearts filled with his love, our lives brought under his control, so as to be devoted to his service and regulated by his will?
- Not any power in ourselves. As well might a single drop in the Niagara run upward, while the mighty stream is sweeping downward. 2. Not by seclusion from the world, and trying to get into a stream which runs in a contrary direction. This is impossible, for we cannot get out of the world. We are part and parcel of it. An eddy often forms in a stream, and sets backward; but it is only to be deflected in a different line, back into the mighty flood. 3. This cannot be done for us. The Church cannot save us. Neither its power nor its directions are of avail in this case. 4. The apostle tells us that faith is the victory. This includes two very different things. First, faith as the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, is a new principle and power introduced into our nature. It is a divine, supernatural gift. It overcomes the world, (1). Because it brings eternal things to view. It removes the scales from our eyes, and enables us to see God, things unseen, heaven and hell; to see their truth, and their infinite importance. All other things are seen to be trifles in comparison. (2). Truth is not the only object of faith. It discerns the excellence of the things believed, and, therefore, fills the heart with love and longing. It displaces the world from the heart by introducing a new and infinitely higher affection.
Second. All this is true; but it is not the truth which the apostle meant to teach. The faith of which he speaks has Christ for its object. Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Christ? What is it to believe that Jesus is the Christ? And how does that overcome the world?
To believe that Jesus is the Christ is to believe, (1.) That he is the eternal Son of God. (2.) That he is God manifest in our nature. (3.) That he is the Messiah. (4.) That all that the Scriptures predicted as the work of the Messiah has been, is and shall be accomplished in him. How does this overcome the world? (1.) Because it reconciles us to God and delivers us from the kingdom of Satan. It makes us feel that we are not of the world; that this is not our home, nor our inheritance. (2.) Because it secures for us the gift of the Holy Ghost as a new principle of life. 3. Because it supplies us with a new object of affection, which supersedes and absorbs all others. It becomes Christ for us to live. We care for nothing but Christ. He satisfies all our capacities and desires. “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.”
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