March 1, 1843
HOLINESS OF CHRISTIANS IN THE PRESENT LIFE:--No. 5
CHRISTIAN WARFARE.
Modernized by Cliff
Collins
“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not
fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the
flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are
contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.” (Gal. 5:16, 17)
Either many people today completely misunderstand
this passage, or else the Apostle Paul contradicts himself here. Because he seems like he ignores the 16th
verse, and assumes that the purpose of the 17th verse determines the grounds of
what he stated in the 16th verse, many scholars and theologians believe that
the 17th verse declares that because the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the
Spirit lusts against the flesh, people who really want to be holy, cannot be
holy. This is what many people today
believe that this passage means. Now, I
repeat, that if this interpretation is true, then Paul contradicts
himself. The 16th verse positively
states that those who walk in the Spirit shall not fulfill the lusts of the
flesh. This common interpretation of
the 17th verse makes Paul say that, because of the opposition between the flesh
and the Spirit, those who walk in the Spirit must fulfill the lusts of the
flesh. But, this interpretation
completely overlooks the fact that the 17th verse is designed to support what
Paul said in the 16th verse. In the
16th verse, Paul says, “walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts
of the flesh”. Why? “Because”, Paul says, “the flesh lusts
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to
one another”, that is, they are opposites.
What then? Why the obvious conclusion,
“that you (that is, who walk in the Spirit,) will not do the things that you
wish (would – KJV)”, if you are not walking in the Spirit. In other words, you who are walking in the
Spirit cannot fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
The simple principle is, that you cannot walk after the Spirit and
fulfill the lusts of the flesh at the same time, simply because it is
impossible to perform two opposites at once.
In further commenting on this passage, I plan to
show,
I. What isn’t Christian warfare?
II. What is Christian warfare?
III. What is the difference between careless and
convicted sinners?
IV. What is the difference between saints and
convicted, but unconverted professing Christians?
V. Would there have been warfare even if man had
never sinned?
VI. What are the causes that have aggravated this
warfare since the fall of Adam?
VII. How can we modify and lessen Christian warfare?
VIII. That Christian warfare will, under a more or
less modified form, continue as long as we are in the body.
I. What isn’t Christian warfare?
1. Christian warfare isn’t a conflict between the
Christian’s will or heart, and his conscience, because the Christian has a new
heart, and that new heart and his conscience are now in harmony. The new birth occurs when our will rejects
self-gratification as our supreme goal in life, and adopts the law of our
reason which calls us to love the Lord our God with all our heart and our
neighbor as ourselves. Therefore,
regeneration places our will and our conscience in harmony, because our conscience
is a function of our reason.
2. Christian warfare is not a war with inward
sin. It is a war with temptation. Some people talk about fighting or battling
inbred or indwelling sin. But, what do
they mean when they say that? I have no
objection to anybody saying that, if they will only tell us what they mean; but
the truth is, to talk about a Christian’s battle with indwelling sin, is to
talk sheer nonsense. What is sin? Sin is an act of our will. Sin is choosing self-gratification over the
will of God. This, and nothing else, is
sin. Therefore, to say that you are
fighting indwelling sin, is to say that the will is fighting against
itself. If you talk about fighting
indwelling sin, you are talking about your choice warring against itself. You are talking about willing or choosing to
sin and than battling your own choice.
Nothing can be more absurd than this.
We may fight with temptation, but we cannot fight with sin in ourselves.
II. What is Christian warfare?
1. Christian warfare is a conflict between our will
and our emotions. By our emotions, I
mean the faculty of our soul that all our feelings, desires, and passions
belong to. We generally call the
desires and passions of our emotions, tendencies. Christian warfare is a battle that takes place between our will
and our emotions. For example: our
appetite for food seeks its own gratification, and so do all the other
tendencies of our soul. Because
gratification is the only goal that our appetites, desires, and passions aim at,
gratification is blind to everything else.
Gratification knows nothing about measure or degree. When our will gives in to gratify our
appetites, desires and passions, we subject our will to a lawless power, and we
completely set aside God’s, the law that He has revealed and placed in our
reason. This is sin. Sin is giving our will up to seek
gratification for its own sake. This is
what sinners do.
However, in regeneration, our will no longer wants
to satisfy our appetites, desires, and passions. This is no longer our goal.
In regeneration, we commit ourselves to the goal, which our reason tells
us that we should commit our heart and lives to. And that goal is that we dedicate our selves to the universal
good of God and all His creation. Our
will takes a stand that opposes our appetites, desires, and passions. However, our appetites and desires still
exist, and we still must resist them.
That we still need to curb our emotions with all its susceptibilities
after regeneration is something that every Christian experiences, and the Bible
clearly mentions. In today’s passage,
the Apostle Paul says, addressing Christians, “Walk in the Spirit and you shall
not fulfill (obey) the lusts of the flesh”.
The word ‘flesh’ as they used it in the days of the Apostles, includes
everything that we receive through our five physical our fleshly senses, that
is, through sight, sound, feeling, touch, and taste. Everything that affects and stirs up our appetites, desires, and
passions belong to the flesh. Thus, the
word ‘flesh’ here speaks of our ability to feel or perceive. This is the definition of the word
‘senses’. The reason why I sometimes
use the word ‘senses’ rather than the word ‘flesh’, is because I think it expresses
the intended idea a little more accurately today. When a word that used to express an idea quite accurately becomes
less exact as time marches on, our duty is to adopt modern words that represent
the same idea. To express the idea of
today’s passage, I would say, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill
the tendencies of your senses’.
2. Christian warfare is a war between our will and
Satan. It is his great goal to keep our
will in bondage to the tendencies of our senses or our flesh. Hence, he directs all his efforts to arouse
our appetites, desires, and passions, hoping to use these things to enslave our
will.
3. This warfare is warfare between our heart and the
world. The world presents ten thousand
temptations on every side. Each
temptation is designed to arouse our appetites, desires, and passions, and to
encourage our will to gratify them. We
must constantly battle these highly attractive temptations.
4. Christian warfare is warfare against our
constitutional behavior. How many
temptations originate in peculiar behaviors, for example, in people who are
highly cheerful and impulsive, or nervous?
Few have failed to notice the influence of temptation that comes from
this source.
5. Christian warfare is war against habits. Once we have formed habits, everyone knows
how difficult it is to overcome them.
Why is it so difficult to overcome habits? Because habits naturally produce temptations, and the stronger
the habit is, the stronger the temptation will be.
6. Christian warfare is warfare against a polluted
imagination. Many people focus their
imagination on certain objects, and brood over certain things so long, that it
almost instantly creates the most polluting pictures possible and presents to
their will the most seductive conceptions you can imagine. Who doesn’t know this? We must steadily fight against all these
creations from a polluted imagination.
7. Christian warfare is war against temptations that
come from the law of association. By
the law of association, I mean the ability that our mind has, by which one
thought suggests a second thought, which suggests another thought, and then
another, until a whole series of thoughts have passed before our mind. Now, where these associations are corrupt,
they present powerful temptations to our will, and we must wage war against
these temptations.
8. Christian warfare is a constant battle for the
control of our attention and thoughts.
Many things in our world today, within and without, catch our attention
and carry away our thoughts, and through these thoughts, strong temptations
arise. Everyone is aware, to a greater
or lesser extent, of the effort it takes, under certain circumstances and
relationships, to restrain and keep our thoughts and our attention under
control. All these temptations rise up
in our senses, and Satan, the world, our constitutional behavior, our polluted
imagination, the law of association, and our vagrant thoughts are only different
forms which arouses and inflames our appetites, desires, and passions.
III. What is the difference between careless and
convicted sinners?
1. There is no warfare between the will and the
senses of the careless sinner. The
evils of self-gratification don’t convict him, and he can’t see where his
tendencies lead him. As a result, his
appetites, desires, and passions lead him along. He doesn’t even try to resist.
The convicted sinner, on the other hand, sees the evil of sin. He sees that the reign of his appetites,
desires, and passions is like an evil tyrant, and he must find deliverance from
this tyrant. As a result, he tries to
resist their demands, but his senses continually overcome him. All his efforts are unsuccessful and his
resolutions are blown away as chaff before the wind.
2. The careless sinner does not know what temptation
is. As long as he simply floats along
with the current, he has not clue how strong temptation is. Because he moves with the current, he even
feels that he isn’t moving at all.
However, the convicted sinner has learned the nature of that
current. He has become aware that he is
floating along on the stream of death, and he has become aware of the need to
escape from its current. Therefore, he
tries to turn around and go against the current, but he finds that all his
efforts are worthless. He finds that
when he wants to do good, evil is present with him.
3. Careless sinners don’t even try to resist, and as
a result, they don’t know the kind of resistance they would have to face if
they tried to change for the better.
They are like a man whom robbers tied up while he slept, and, when he
first wakes up, he doesn’t know what happened to him and, as a result, he
doesn’t try to break his bonds. But the
convicted sinner makes strenuous efforts to change for the better. He sees that he is standing on a slippery
slope, and he must immediately climb off that slope or slide into the pit
below. He is on an inclined plane,
sliding closer and closer to the edge, from which he must plunge into the
depths of hell. Therefore, he begins to
make one resolution after another to straighten out his life; but without
success. He slides downward, faster and
faster, finding that the commandment that he thought would produce life is
producing death, for sin took advantage of the commandment to deceive and slay
him.
4. Both are slaves, but the careless sinner is not
aware of his bondage. He has no clue
about the dictatorial tyrant he is a slave to; but a convicted sinner
knows. The convicted sinner sees that
he is a slave sold under sin. He is
alarmed, and tries hard to escape from his bondage. He tries to run away, but his master soon catches him and drags
him back into his service.
These are the major differences between the careless
and the convicted sinner. The 7th
chapter of Romans is an excellent illustration of the warfare of a convicted
sinner.
IV. What is the difference between saints, and
convicted but unconverted professing Christians and backsliders?
1. Both have constitutional appetites, passions, and tendencies, which will probably become excited in the presence of those objects that tend to stir up their senses. As a result, both saints and unconverted professing Christians will probably be tempted from these sources. These appetites and tendencies have no moral character all by themselves in either situation. Because such temptations are involuntary, how can they be sinful? Most of you would agree that anyone, who claims that his appetite for food is sinful, is crazy. But, the fact that involuntary temptations are not sinful also applies to every other appetite, desire, or tendency. Therefore, sin does not consist in the constitutional appetite, passion, or tendency of either the true saint or the deceived professing Christian. Sin consists in consenting, or agreeing to indulge in our appetites, passions, and tendencies under forbidden circumstances.
2. Both the saint and the unconverted professing
Christian sees that they need to resist their excited appetites and tendencies,
and both of them resist to a certain degree.
However, the Christian’s resistance is effective. He holds his appetites and tendencies under
control. This is what the Bible tells
us. Today’s passage says, “walk in the
Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh”. In Romans 6:14, it says, “For sin shall not
have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace”. On the other hand, the unconverted
professing Christian’s efforts or the backslider’s efforts are ineffective, and
his temptations continually overcome him.
In the 7th chapter of Romans, the Apostle describes this state
perfectly. Here, Paul describes a
situation that shows the ineffective struggle that the unconverted professing
Christian makes trying to overcome sin by resolutions. Even though he makes resolutions, because he
has no love, his resolutions fail and temptation finally overcomes him. Nothing can be more certain than the Apostle
Paul wanted to show, in this passage, that the law could not sanctify the
mind. Throughout this chapter, Paul
clearly talks about the relationship the law has to the selfish person. When Paul shifts and begins to speak in the
first person rather than the third person, he merely places himself in that
situation to use as an illustration, just as other speakers and writers often
do. Paul used the first person “I”, not
to describe his present actual state, but to carry his past experience into the
present situation of so many of his readers so he can place the situation
clearly before the minds of those he was writing to. Here Paul represents somebody that is clearly constantly overcome
by temptation, which, the 8th chapter, as well as in many other passages in the
Bible, deny that such a conclusion is true of a real Christian. The truth is, this chapter is an exact history
of the experience of every sinner who labors under conviction, and I may add,
it is the exact opposite of the gospel experience.
3. The unconverted professing Christian’s heart, as
well as backslider’s heart sides with the temptation. This is the real problem with him, and his conscience only
distresses and leads him to wish and resolve, in opposition to the real choice
of his heart. Now as long as his heart
remains devoted to self-gratification, every resolution, and every effort that
he makes in opposition to that self which sits on the throne of his heart, must
be without love, and therefore, it is a legal resolution. His conscience, which arouses his fears,
literally wrings these resolutions and efforts out of him. Now, since his heart remains unchanged, and
since a person’s heart or ultimate intention always governs his conduct, his
resolutions always fail. It is
impossible that any resolution or effort should stand and be effective against
that person’s supreme preference to serve himself. But the Christian’s heart, on the other hand, is in harmony with
his conscience, and therefore his resistance is effective. Since he really chooses what his reason
demands, temptations are directly opposed to his supreme choice, and if he
yields to any temptation, it must be because of a radical change in his ultimate
intention away from loving God with all his heart. Therefore, the true saint is able to put temptation down, and
keep it under his feet.
4. The convicted professing Christian resolves and
tries in the absence of love, and, of course, he fails and is overcome, but the
Christian does not make resolutions.
The Christian used to make resolutions, but he found that they
accomplished nothing. Perhaps there
never is a sinner converted, or a backslider restored, until he has tried his
resolutions and legal efforts so thoroughly that he is finally compelled to
give them up because he finally loses all hope that he will ever become
victorious by his resolutions and legal efforts. But, when he has exhausted every effort of his own, and he finds
himself completely bankrupt, then he will turn and come to Christ to supply all
his need. Then he will go directly to
Christ as his only deliverer. This
leads him away from himself, renders him unselfish and loving, and sets him
free. Therefore, while the legalist
depends on his watchfulness, his prayers, and his resolutions to keep him from
falling under temptation, the Christian knows better and depends wholly on the
strength of Christ.
5. The unconverted professing Christian or
backslider calls on Christ, and he thinks he depends on Christ, but in fact, he
doesn’t really know what true dependence is.
However, the true Christian actually depends on Christ. It is remarkable that those who have no
faith call themselves poor miserable creatures when they pray. These faithless people tell Christ they will
trust Him, and yet, after everything they say, they do not overcome. However, the true Christian knows he once
made that mistake, but he doesn’t make that mistake any more. He now knows what it is like to depend on
Christ by faith, and to serve Him in love.
The love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit sustains
him.
V. Would warfare still exist even if man had never
sinned?
1. Warfare would have existed even if man had never
sinned because our constitutional appetites and our constitutional emotions
would still exist. They existed before
Adam and Eve fell, otherwise our first parents could not have fallen. For example, the appetites of our mother Eve
could be excited, and the appropriate objects could tempt her. Now, her excited emotions had no moral
character all by themselves. She was in
her pure state when her emotions were excited in her. Now, if she had resisted the temptation created by her excited
emotions, she would not have sinned.
God created these constitutional appetites and emotions, and He wove
them into the very fabric of the first humans.
Now, we would still pass down these constitutional appetites and
emotions from generation to generation throughout all humanity even if man had
never fallen, and in the presence of the appropriate objects, these appetites
and emotions would still tempt us to seek their gratification today. Our constitutional appetites and emotions
are a built-in part of our constitution, and all moral beings have to curb them
in order to conform to the demands of their higher nature. Satan and all his angels actually fell under
the temptation that was presented to them; and, as I showed in my last lecture,
every child, when it first begins to act morally, does the same.
2. Temptation, under some form, may, and will no
doubt exist forever. As long as moral
beings have constitutions, this must always be true in all worlds. As we have already said, Satan and all his angels,
and our first parents were actually tempted while they were in a holy
state. We also know that Jesus Christ
walked in a holy state, and yet had plenty of warfare. Sometimes His warfare was so strong that he
had no appetite for food. Sometimes
Christ sought the wilderness in His distress or went up on some mountain to
pray alone, just as you and I might do, under similar circumstances. How often have you gone into the woods or to
some other secluded place to be alone.
What Christian, has not felt the need to do this often? Have you ever been under an attack that was
so tremendous, and the struggle that waged within you was so strong, that you
could have no peace day or night, and so you sought a place where you could go
to vent your prayers and your groans alone?
Christ was tempted in this same way, and so, in His warfare, He fled
from the face of man and sought the solitude of the wilderness where He could
battle the temptation even unto death.
Satan appeared to assault Christ in all the weakest points of His human
nature, and when, in His agony, He had fasted until He was nearly famished,
then Satan besieged Him through His appetite for food, and in every other way
the devil could invent, until Satan saw that all his attempts were worthless
and Satan finally left Him. The apostle
says, “He was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin”. (Hebrews 4:15) It is dangerous to think that temptation only belongs to us in
our fallen state. If Christians would
realize that our constitutional appetites and susceptibilities existed before
the human race fell, they never would fall into the ridiculous blunder of
calling their constitutional emotions, or their nature, sinful. Instead, they would teach their fellow
Christians to control and regulate their nature, rather than call the nature
God has given them, sinful.
VI. What are several reasons why this warfare is so
strong in this present age (since the fall of Adam)?
1. Before man fell, our appetites, desires, and
passions originally responded with equal integrity to everything that our soul
saw, whether our mind saw it or our emotions saw it. Human nature was susceptible to all objects alike. We all know that when we look at certain
objects, corresponding feelings begin to glow deep within our souls. For example, if we look at a beautiful
object, corresponding feelings will naturally awaken within us. Now every object naturally excited our
appropriate constitutional human appetite, desire, or passion. When Adam or Eve saw an object, that object
naturally stirred their corresponding feelings. Their emotions responded with equal readiness, to affirm their
duty concerning any object of sensual desire.
It was not clamorous and uproarious in anything, but all these things
were properly and sweetly balanced.
2. Today, our appetites, desires, and passions are
capable of sudden and monstrous developments in any given direction. Let me explain myself. Suppose a mother loses her child. There is a sudden crash, and in one moment,
her little blooming babe lies dead before her horror stricken face. Now, how will she react to this? Why, the sight of her dead child will
produce a greater effect on her emotions, than anything has ever done
before. Yes, there were times when
things affected her emotionally, even to tears. But now, the sight of her dead child grips her whole soul. She stands convulsing whenever she looks
helpless at her little child. She sobs
uncontrollably. Her hot tears pour
forth like rain. Now why is this? Because there is such a tremendous emotional
upheaval in that direction, that it completely overwhelms everything else. She sits, thinking and weeping. She wanders around her house sighing, and
every object that her eye rests on that is connected with her darling infant,
freshly reopens that wound that exposes the subject of her grief.
The same is true in other things. The tendency to fear in a certain area may
be produced by a particular event. A
horse throws a man, or it runs away with his wagon, placing him in great danger,
and so, for the rest of his life, whenever he is placed in a similar
circumstance he becomes unusually fearful.
Perhaps he wakes up in the middle of the night to find his house on
fire, and, with great difficulty, he escapes.
Now this event may bring him into such a relationship to fires, that for
the rest of his life, whenever a fire alarm sounds, he instantly becomes
afraid, and finds that he has all he can do to control himself. I have heard about a young man, one of those
who escaped from the Erie, which burned on Lake Erie several months ago, that
he can’t even hear the name Erie, without becoming upset. I am now speaking about facts that everyone
knows concerning abnormal developments of our emotions, and these facts
unquestionably prove that we can upset or destroy the balance of our appetites,
desires, and passions. Now whenever
this kind of development takes place, it seems to put out the eyes of the
emotions on other subjects, so that such people no longer feel as strongly concerning
those other things as they once did.
The mother, in the example I just mentioned, will never feel the same
towards many other things, as she once did.
This is true in every situation, in exact proportion to the strength of
that one absorbing unusual feeling.
3. In most situations, our appetites, desires, and
passions develop and change quickly, while truths that our reason reveals to us
change very little. Everyone knows how
quickly our feelings respond to an object that we can detect with one or more
of our senses. I don’t need provide you
with examples of this. On the other
hand, we also know just as well, that our mind is not nearly as affected. Therefore, our mind usually changes little,
while our appetites, desires, and passions, which God originally designed to
wake up and respond quickly to the voice of reason, responds very little to the
voice of reason, even if the voice of reason screams its assurances loud and
clear. Now why does this happen? Because the monstrous development of our
appetites, desires, and passions, in response to objects of sense, turns our eyes
away from reason and its demands. Our
appetites and desires gives all its love to sensual objects; and this greatly
aggravates the power of temptation that comes from such objects.
4. A certain appetite or passion may develop more in
some people than it does in other people.
As a result, we say that one person has a passion for one thing, while
another person has a passion for something else. For example, one person may have a passion for money, or for
company, or for novel reading, or for gaming; but he cares very little for
traveling, or intemperance, or licentiousness.
Almost everybody has some ruling object of gratification to which his
emotions respond more powerfully. The
stronger this passion, or the more this passion develops, the stronger the
influence it will have over that person’s will, and, of course, the stronger
the temptations will become.
5. The imagination of some people is highly
polluted. They allow themselves to read
certain books, to talk about certain subjects, and to think about, or perhaps
allow themselves to get into certain situations. They surround themselves with, and associate with objects that
are like fiery combustibles; the least incident will kindle their appetites,
desires, and passions into a flame, and thus, their temptation becomes that
much worse.
6. A diseased nervous system is often the source of
tremendous temptations. Perhaps, there
is hardly anyone alive today, whose nervous system is not, in some degree,
diseased, but in some, it is much worse than in others. Now, since the mind develops itself through
the nervous system, and an intimate connection exists between them, it often
happens, that the nerves become the source of the fiercest temptations. Examples have been brought to my attention
that strongly illustrate this point.
7. Another source of increased temptation is that
our will has not subjected our thoughts, appetites, desires, and passions to
its control. Instead of controlling,
our will gives in to almost every demand of our thoughts, appetites, and
desires, except where they conflict with one another. This forces the mind to choose between them. Now it is very important that the will
should take control of all our emotions as early in life as possible. We can teach youngsters to do this as early
as we can teach them to do anything else that their will accomplishes. Many do not seem to see this. Now how does the will of a human being take
control over any of his powers and emotions?
The process is quite simple.
Let’s look at it.
Let us begin by looking at a little infant
girl. At first, she hardly knows how to
move any of her muscles, and it is not until after a lot of trial and error
that she begins to control her little hands.
Next, she tries to walk, but she keeps falling down. She doesn’t know how to walk, and she must
learn how to control her voluntary muscles.
However, after many efforts, she finally succeeds in getting her leg
muscles under her voluntary control.
The same is true with the use of her tongue. All the various uses and movements that her tongue can accomplish
are actually learned, and learning to control her tongue by her will, is as
much an art, as the movement of an organist’s fingers is an art. Thus, a constant battle is going on in the
child as she tries to get herself under her own control. Now, she succeeds concerning her physical
powers, but she does not get control of the powers of her mind. Now why doesn’t she get control of the
powers of her mind? It is because there
is a defect in her training, and not because there is some naturally
insurmountable difficulty in getting control over her mental powers. Everyone knows that a person can gain
control of his or her mental powers, at least to some degree. What is the purpose of sending a child to
school? It is to discipline her
mind. One of the great problems with
undisciplined minds is that the youngster has not mastered his own mind. However, as time goes by, they will acquire
such self-control that they will be able to concentrate for hours on the most
boring mathematical problems. But,
since they never attempted, or acquired the art of controlling the various
tendencies of their flesh, or their emotions, the full grown man finds himself
at a loss trying to regulate them, just as the infant struggles to control her
muscles. He never learned the art of
self-control, and, as a result, when his appetites and emotions violently boil
over, these soulish tendencies become severe temptations that seem to attack
relentlessly.
8. As I have already mentioned, the fact that our reason is so very slightly developed, gives our emotions with all its monstrous developments almost complete control. Now, our reason reveals and imposes the law of love on us, and our reason applies this law as fast as we discover new relationships. Now when people don’t seek moral relationships, then they refuse to pay attention to what their reason is trying to tell them, their reason will not develop properly or grow. I need to say something here that many people believe, but it is a very delicate subject. Many say that women are generally influenced by feelings, rather than by reason. A certain gentleman said about his wife, “if I want to carry her will, I can never do it by reasoning with her, but I must always appeal to her feelings”. The question is, why is this true? It is not because they have no reason. It is not because they can’t develop their reason to operate as powerfully as it operates in men. But, it is because, for ages, their training and education has been directly designed to develop their feelings, desires, and passions, until, as it is said, they become a bundle of nerves, and their reason is left uncultivated and undeveloped.
However, the same is also true about men these
days. If their reason was as developed
as it should be, you might throw off a string of self-evident propositions, as
fast as an auctioneer would sell off articles under his hammer, and they would,
without difficulty, immediately see their truth. However, as things are, they don’t even see these things. Why?
Because, while there is a over-development of their feelings, desires,
and passions, their rational development is almost totally neglected, and now,
instead of influencing them by simply appealing to their reason, you find all
your efforts worthless, unless you can also powerfully arouse their emotions in
favor of the object you are enforcing.
9. Another thing that increases this warfare is the
way parents train their children. In
most cases, their training is designed to develop certain appetites and
passions. Parents, teachers, and
others, have the care and responsibility to watch over their children, and keep
them from circumstances and from conduct that will over-develop their feelings,
desires, and passions. Instead, these
parents and guardians turn their children over to just about as much excitement
as possible, until their emotions become so outrageous in its demands that it
carries their will in favor of whatever it demands.
10. These and other things that I could mention, show
how fearfully this warfare increases, which the Christian faces, even after he
becomes a Christian. I should also add
to the above reasons, the fact that parents have passed down diseases to their
children, which continually operate to tempt their will to sin.
VII. How can we modify and reduce this warfare.
1. By restoring health. If our health is restored, all the temptations that that disease
stirs up will disappear.
2. By developing our reason. As our reason wakes up, our emotions also
begin to develop in the same direction.
This is how people become awakened and convicted. After conversion, the more our reason
successfully opposes our sensual tendencies, the more the strength and tendency
of those feelings, desires, and passions are broken and subdued.
3. A great development of our emotions, produced by
a revelation of the love of Christ, will greatly help reduce and modify this
warfare. It often happens, that when we
see the character of God in Christ in its true light, it doesn’t leave room for
anything else. Our reason stands on
tiptoe, gazing steadfastly with its intuitive eye, and our feelings, desires,
and passions all turn and face Christ, to receive the full impression of such a
glorious vision. I remember the case of
a very ungodly man, who seemed to take delight in demonstrating as much
contempt for religion as he possibly could.
His wife was a professing Christian, but he opposed her and he forbid
her to attend the revival meetings that were taking place in the church at that
time. He went so far, that he finally
got to the place, where he couldn’t find any more material and opportunities to
fuel his opposition. So, one day, he
thought he would go to the meeting that evening, and see if he could find
something there to mock and ridicule, especially since he heard that a great
many things about the meeting that sounded like it would provide him with lots
of entertainment.
Just before the meeting began, his wife went into
her closet and poured out her whole heart to God. She prayed for God to make a way for her to go to the
meeting. As she came out she met her husband,
and he asked her if she wanted to go to meeting that night. Astonished, and rejoicing, she was soon
ready, and they were off. While the
minister was preaching, God grabbed a hold of the man’s attention, and about
halfway through the sermon, he groaned out and fell down in his seat. He was in such agony that it looked like he
was going to die. The minister had to
stop preaching. This man kept
exclaiming over and over, “Oh Jesus, how I have abused You” until, finally, his
agitation faded away, leaving him in a state of the most perfect submission to
the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Now here was a situation, where God almost
immediately revolutionized a man, simply by manifesting His character to
him. This man said it was a view of the
character of God in Christ that produced those results. His convictions rapidly rose until he could
endure it no longer, and when he bowed his will, it seemed as though God said
to all the tendencies which formerly ruled him, “peace, be still”. Praise God, he has been a flaming light ever
since. His tongue turns with the
praises of God. I have known him for a
long time and he always seems the same.
No doubt, his apprehension of the character of God in Christ greatly
reduced his warfare. I know the effect
of this in my own experience. When I
was converted, for some time I did not know that I had any appetite left; all
my emotions seemed so perfectly absorbed in the things of the gospel. There was nothing strange in all of
this. This is perfectly natural and
just what you can expect.
4. There is one truth in particular which, when the
Holy Spirit reveals it to us, seems forever after to exert a powerful influence
on our emotions. That truth is the
relationship that the death of Christ has to our sins. People often talk about the Atonement, and
yet it doesn’t look like they understand its real meaning. They especially don’t understand its
relationship to their own sins. But,
let them immediately see that their own sins are responsible for His death, and
where is the mind that can contemplate that fact without being moved? I have known that that single thought can be
so powerful that it can get all the nerves quivering, and, as it were, set
one’s emotions all on fire; emotions that are strong enough to throw a strong
man almost into a fit of apoplexy.
VIII. This warfare will continue under a more or
less modified form as long as we are in the body.
Some believe that when people are entirely
sanctified, all their passions, desires, and appetites will invariably force
their will in the same direction their reason goes. However, such people don’t know what they are talking about,
because all their tendencies seek their objects for their own sake, and these
tendencies are blind to everything else.
Their passions and desires must always urge their will to seek their
respective objects so they can be gratified.
This is temptation, and this creates warfare. Our appetite for food, for example, seeks food for its own sake,
and so does our desire for knowledge.
Therefore, it is silly to say that our passions and desires will not
solicit our will to gratify those appetites under improper circumstances. But when our mind is completely sanctified,
instead of our various tendencies creating such a fiery and turbulent warfare
when they are excited, our will places enough control over those passions and
desires that they easily stay where they belong, so that all our passions,
desires, and appetites will be subdued and tranquilized. The most that we can do or will do is
harmonize them, and by no means, is it desirable that we should annihilate
them. Suppose, for example, we
annihilated our desire for knowledge.
Oh, what a calamity that would be!
Or, what about our desire for food?
The truth is, all our constitutional desires should remain. God gave us our constitutional desires for
useful purposes. Our constitutional
desires call for their appropriate objects.
They call for such things as food, clothing, and knowledge. Thus, passions, desires, and appetites are
constantly feeling after those things that we must have to live and survive in
this world. They are essential for the
existence of our human race. Besides,
to regulate them is a good exercise for our will, and it is difficult to see
how we could be virtuous at all, if we destroyed all our emotions and desires. If we removed any of our natural passions,
desires, and appetites, no doubt, it would be a great evil. It would be like saying that God did not
love us when He created us, and did not make us in the best way possible.
REMARKS.
1. The common idea of battling inward sin is
nonsensical and impossible. Those who
say such things confuse temptation with sin.
They call their natural appetites and tendencies sinful, and when they
resist these, they call their appetites and tendencies indwelling sin. No doubt, countless professing Christians
confuse the actions of their conscience, its warnings and reproofs, for the
resistance of their heart to temptation.
The truth is, Christian warfare consists in a struggle between the will
and temptations that come from without and within, and in nothing else.
2. The deceived professing Christian’s warfare is
between his heart and his reason or conscience. Because his heart is devoted to self-gratification, he constantly
disapproves of and denounces what he is doing as wrong. And so, he maintains this constant struggle
within, between his heart and his reason, and he calls this Christian
warfare. If this is true, then every
sinner has Christian warfare, and so does the devil.
3. The Christian overcomes in his warfare. This is a habitual fact. “For sin shall not have dominion over you,
for you are not under the law but under grace.” (Romans 6:14.) Also look
at Romans 8:14 if you get a chance.
Look at the passage and its context.
There are also many other passages that state the same thing.
4. What a terrible mistake it is to think that the
7th chapter of Romans is the Christian experience. I will not hesitate to say that it has been the occasion of the
destruction of more souls than almost any other error in the world. This error is a fundamental error that
confuses the very nature of true religion.
5. True Christian warfare greatly strengthens his
virtue. When God tries him, and forces
him to gather up all his energy to maintain his integrity, when he wrestles
until he is perspiring because of some fiery trial that he must go through, it
must be that when he comes out from such a trial as this, his virtue is greatly
strengthened and improved.
6. We can see from what I have shared with you
today, why sinners often doubt the reality of temptation, and when they hear
Christians talk about their temptations, they think that Christians must be
worse than they are, for they don’t experience temptations that are nearly as
strong as the temptations that some of those Christians experience. But, the reason why they are not aware of
temptations that are that strong is because they haven’t tried to regulate
their appetites, emotions, and tendencies by the law of God. A man who floats downstream with the current
is not aware of the strength of that current until he turns around and tries to
swim against it. The same principle
applies to those professing Christians who entertain the same doubts. Talk about temptation! Why, they say, “I am not tempted very
much”. Indeed! Perhaps the only thing you’ve ever done is
to yield to it.
7. You can now see why the Apostle said so much
about the opposition of the flesh and the Spirit. He represents the flesh and spirit as hostile to each other
throughout his epistles, especially in the 6th, 7th, and 8th chapters of Romans.
8. Many struggle for a while in their own strength,
and, through continued failures, they become discouraged, and give up. The temptations of their appetites and
tendencies are too strong for them.
They have not learned by faith to derive their strength from Christ.
9. Many have completely abandoned the idea of ever
becoming sanctified, because they believe their constitutional tendencies,
which they call their nature, are sinful.
They say that it is useless to talk about entire sanctification in this
life, and they might as well say this because they believe their constitutional
appetites and tendencies are truly sinful.
There is not one promise in scripture that says that our nature will be
revolutionized in this life or even in the next life.
10. Others become discouraged and depressed because
they cannot control their thoughts when their will is weary. The will is that power of our soul, which
originates all the control that we exert over our selves. But, many become weary, or perhaps it would
be better to say, that their minds, which they use to act, grows weary and it
wants to rest. When they sleep, their
will is suspended; and therefore their thoughts run lawless and without
direction when they dream. Students,
who study hard for a long time, find it becomes extremely difficult to keep
their attention and thoughts on their studies.
Why? It is because their will
becomes tired, and it needs to rest.
The same is true with Christians who try to pray when they are tired and
worn out. Their thoughts fly everywhere. They try to control their wandering
thoughts. They struggle, and, for a
moment they seem to gain control over their thoughts, but then they lose it
again. They try to concentrate on
prayer over and over again, but with very little success, and so they become
frustrated. Now, what’s the matter? They need rest, and they should rest rather
than to try to force their worn out will into action. Let your will rest. Let
your mind rest. God will have mercy and
not sacrifice. After a man has walked
sixty miles in a day and his will can no longer force his exhausted muscles to
take one more step, what is the use of him trying to use his worn out legs and
then blaming himself because he can’t?
Suppose a man decides that he will never fall asleep because he is
afraid he will dream and he is afraid his thoughts might ramble heedless of his
will! Why call such things sin? Don’t mystify what is simple and mix up sin
and holiness, light and darkness, heaven and hell, so that people can’t tell
which is which.
11. Some people use the fact, that this warfare is
presented as continuing, as an argument against the doctrine of
sanctification. It appears as if they
believe that a soul must get beyond warfare in order to be sanctified! What!
Then Adam was not sanctified before he sinned, nor Satan; nor was Jesus
Christ while on earth, for it is a simple matter of fact that all three had
temptation while they were sinless.
What would you think about this argument, if they said that Jesus Christ
had warfare and therefore He was not wholly sanctified?
12. No matter how strong the conflict, if the soul
prevails there is no sin. Jesus Christ
endured strong trials. But, He
prevailed. “He was tempted in all points
as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews
4:15) So if temptation should bear down
upon any of you like a tornado, if you will only hold on, and fight it out, you
have not sinned. In fact, the sharper
the conflict, the greater the virtue of resistance.
13. The saints in this world are no doubt preparing
for some high positions of usefulness, and God will place them into situations
where they may be exposed to strong temptations. I come to this conclusion from the fact that God places them in
circumstances that are designed to ripen them and prepare them for such a
destiny. God never acts without a purpose,
and He surely has a purpose in this.
14. The sanctified sometimes must remain burdened down and heavy through many various temptations. Now don’t conclude, if you see them weighed down like this, that they are not holy. Christ had His sorrows, and He knew what it was like to resist even unto blood, striving against the temptation to sin; and the servant should not expect to fare better than his Lord. The truth is, these trials are useful. They last only for a moment, but they prepare us for a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Sorrows endure for the night but joy comes in the morning. Under the pressure of temptations, the soul agonizes, and cries out “Help, Oh Lord, help”, and the Lord comes forth and scatters the insulting foe, and the soul shoots up like a rocket, giving glory to God.
15. Many have believed for a while, that their enemies were dead, but they were mistaken. The fact is we are never dead in such a sense, that we do not need to watch lest we enter into temptation. But let us never overlook the difference between temptation and sin, and always keep in mind that the Christian warfare is not with sin, but temptation. Never forget that Christ alone can give us the victory. Oh, for the Spirit of Christ to baptize the Ministers and the Churches!