General Conference Bulletin, vol. 4

SERMON

E. J. Waggoner

April 16, 7 P. M.

We will read in the Epistle to the Hebrews, tenth chapter, verses 4-10: “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In the burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may “establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” GCB April 22, 1901, page 403.9

After speaking the last time that I was here, there were two questions handed me, and I might read them now. One of them is this: “Was that holy thing which was born of the virgin Mary born in sinful flesh, and did that flesh have the same evil tendencies to contend with that ours does?” GCB April 22, 1901, page 403.10

We may all understand that in answering this, or speaking on this subject, it is for edification, - that we may learn what is truth, - and not that we may have something with which to meet somebody. Whoever studies the Bible for any other purpose whatever than to know for himself personally the way of God and salvation, studies it to no purpose. We can not study the Bible for somebody else, and find the truth. But when we have found in the Bible the truth for ourselves, and have found that which is joy and life and peace to our own souls, then of the abundant fullness which God gives to us, we may take and give to somebody else. And this is our duty; for we are exhorted “to be ready to every good work.” There is a great deal comprehended in that: always ready to give to every one that asketh us a reason of the hope that is in us, - and that hope is Christ, the hope of glory. GCB April 22, 1901, page 403.11

Now I do not know anything about this matter, except what I read in the Bible; but that which I read in the Bible is so clear and plain that it gives me everlasting hope. [Voices: Amen!] I have had my time of discouragement and despondency and unbelief, but I thank God that it is past. That thing which for years of my life made me discouraged, after I had as earnestly and conscientiously as any one ever did, tried to serve the Lord, - that which made me give up in my soul and say, “It is no use; I can not do it,” was the knowledge, to some extent, of the weakness of my own self, and the thought that those who in my estimation were doing right, and those holy men of old of whom we read in the Bible, were differently constituted from me so that they could do right. I found by many sad experiences that I could not do anything but evil; for while I would flatter myself sometimes that I was doing pretty well, suddenly I would be brought up with the round turn, and I would find that the whole fabric which I had built up was thrown to the ground. After many such painful experiences, I gave up in despair, thinking, “It is no use, my trying to be good; other people may be, but I can’t.” GCB April 22, 1901, page 404.1

I ask you: If Jesus Christ, who is set forth by the Father as the Savior, who came here to show me the way of salvation, in whom alone there is hope, - if his life here on earth was a sham, then where is the hope? [Voice: It is gone.] “But,” you say, “this question presupposes the very opposite of the fact that his life was a sham, because it presuppose that he was perfectly holy, so holy that he never had even any evil to contend with.” GCB April 22, 1901, page 404.2

That’s what I am referring to. I read, he was “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” I read of his praying all night. I read of his praying in such agony the drops of sweat like blood fell from his face; but if that were all make-believe, if it were all simply show, if he went through that and there was nothing to it after all, if he were not really tempted, but was merely going through the motions of prayer, of what use is it all to me? I am left worse off than I was before. GCB April 22, 1901, page 404.3

But O, if their is One, - and I do not use this “if” with any thought of doubt; I will say since there is One who went through all that I ever can be called upon to go through, who resisted more than I in my own single person can ever be called upon to resist [Voices: Amen!] who had temptations stronger than ever has come to me personally, who was constituted in every-respect as I am, only in even worse circumstances than I have been, who met all the power that the devil could exercise through human flesh, and yet who knew no sin, - then I can rejoice with exceeding great joy. [Voices: Amen!] Then I can rejoice and be glad in his salvation; for he is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever; and that which he did some nineteen hundred years ago is that which he is still able to do, which he does to all who believe in him. GCB April 22, 1901, page 404.4

Before we go on with this text, let me show you what there is in the idea that is in this question. You have it in mind. Was Christ, that holy thing which was born of the virgin Mary, born in sinful flesh? Did you ever hear of the Roman Catholic doctrine of the immaculate conception? And do you know what it is? Some of you possibly have supposed in hearing of it, that it meant that Jesus Christ was born sinless. That is not the Catholic dogma at all. The doctrine of the immaculate conception is that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was born sinless. Why? - Ostensibly to magnify Jesus; really the work of the devil to put a wide gulf between Jesus the Saviour of men, and the men whom he came to save, so that one could not pass over to the other. That is all. GCB April 22, 1901, page 404.5

We need to settle, every one of us, whether we are out of the church of Rome or not. There are a great many that have got the marks yet, but I am persuaded of this, that every soul who is here to-night desires to know the way of truth and righteousness. [Congregation: Amen!], and that there is no one here who is unconsciously clinging to the dogmas of the papacy, who does not desire to be freed from them. GCB April 22, 1901, page 404.6

Do you not see that the idea that the flesh of Jesus was not like ours (because we know ours is sinful) necessarily involves the idea of the immaculate conception of the virgin Mary? Mind you, in him was no sin, but the mystery of God manifest in the flesh, the marvel of the ages, the wonder of the angels, that thing which even now they desire to understand, and which they can form no just idea of, only as they are taught it by the church, is the perfect manifestation of the life of God in its spotless purity in the midst of sinful flesh. [Congregation: Amen!] O, that is a marvel, is it not? GCB April 22, 1901, page 404.7

Suppose we start with the idea for a moment that Jesus was so separate from us, that is, so different from us that he did not have in his flesh anything to contend with. It was sinless flesh. Then, of course, you see how the Roman Catholic dogma of the immaculate conception necessarily follows. But why stop there? Mary being born sinless, then, of course, her mother also had sinless flesh. But you can not stop there. You must go back to her mother, and in turn her mother, and her mother, and her parents, and so back until you come to Adam; and the result? - There never was a fall; Adam never sinned; and thus, you see, by that tracing of it, we find the essential identity of Roman Catholicism and Spiritualism and all other false doctrines - evolutions also - which claim that there never has been any fall, but only an ascent: - the Spiritualistic idea that everything in man is right, and man is God himself. You see it comes to that when you trace it back. GCB April 22, 1901, page 404.8

The words of the Bible concerning Christ we have read: “Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted.” We read of the sufferings of Christ. “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” How many of you are there who think that the suffering of Christ was only the few moments that he hung upon the cross, when his hands and feet were pierced, or while being mocked by the Roman soldiers? No; not then alone. “He suffered, being tempted.” Jesus Christ suffered no less when, after his baptism, for forty days and forty nights he was in the wilderness tempted of the devil, than when later in the Garden he suffered and was tempted. GCB April 22, 1901, page 404.9

He “suffered being tempted.” Where did he suffer? We read in 1 Peter 4:1. “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same” - what flesh? “Arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin: that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.” GCB April 22, 1901, page 404.10

He was tempted in the flesh, he suffered in the flesh, but he had a mind which never consented to sin, “Let [therefore] this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Arm yourself with the same mind, the mind of God, and let that mind have control over the body, and you will experience in your own selves that mystery, the power that Jesus Christ has over all flesh,—the power that God himself has to demonstrate his own perfect righteousness under the very worst possible conditions that the devil could devise; and thus he shows his power over the devil. GCB April 22, 1901, page 405.1

Now take our text: The blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin. The blood of a man could not take away sin. The Old Testament is filled with statements to the effect that sacrifices were of no value. “Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.” “Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me; in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come ... to do thy will, O God.” GCB April 22, 1901, page 405.2

For what purpose was this body prepared for Christ, the Son of God, who was in the beginning with God, and who was God, by whom all things were made and in whom all things had origin, “the beginning of the creation of God.” “Whose goings forth have been from the days of eternity,” when he was in the form of God, but who took the form of man? For what purpose was this body prepared for him? We see by the necessary conclusion from the text that it was for sacrifice. Then again he states that it was in order that he might do the will of God, in it. Two things, then, we have as a reason why the body was prepared for Jesus Christ: or, in other words, why he came in the likeness of man, taking upon him the form of a servant, made in all things like unto his brethren. First, that he might make a full and acceptable sacrifice to God. Second, which is also included in the first, than in that body he might do the will of God. “Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first.” The first what?—The first will. “That he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” That is very clear, as concerns Christ. He came to do the will of God, and he did the will of God. “Not my will, but thine, be done,” was his prayer. He established the will of God in the flesh, and established the fact that God’s will may be done in any human, sinful flesh. GCB April 22, 1901, page 405.3

He did all those things that pleased the Father. He established in his own flesh the perfect will of God. Now, if we should leave the matter here we should never get any personal good from the text at all. But we go over it once more and go over it deeper, or higher, whichever way it may be. “Then said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.” “A body hast thou prepared me.” For what purpose is the body prepared him? That in it he may do the will of God. What was the body that was prepared for him in which to do the will of God? Every body, your body, and my body, is prepared by God that Christ may do the will of God in it. For what purpose are we allowed to come into this world? Why are we here?—That we might do the will of God. GCB April 22, 1901, page 405.4

Now, our hope, our only hope, is that this body was prepared solely for the occupancy of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, and that is hope enough. It is a blessed hope. Read about this matter of our flesh, what the Scriptures say of us. The fifth chapter of Galatians tells us the story. “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye can not do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest.” What are they? “Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like.” These things are in the flesh. Not very sinless, is it? Utterly and continually opposed to the Spirit of God, so that there is a strife, and that is the reason why you and I have had such difficulty in serving the Lord. We were double-minded. We desired to serve the Lord, and we gave ourselves partly to him, but only in part, so that we had the mind of the Spirit and the mind of the flesh in contest in the one great battle ground. And that is the reason why you hear the people who are having their “ups and down.” They are thrown down by the enemy, and they get up and then get down again; and they get up and are thrown down again. They have two minds, and “a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” That sort of Christian experience is very unsatisfactory, is it not? Thank the Lord that is not the real Christian experience. The Lord does not call for any such botchwork as that. He sets the perfect example, so that we may be even as he is in this world. GCB April 22, 1901, page 405.5

Now again, in the second chapter of Ephesians there is a thought I wish to read. “You hath he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sin, wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit of which now worketh in the children of disobedience; among whom also we had our manner of life in times past; in the lusts of our flesh; fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” Here we have the flesh, the lusts of the flesh which men fulfill by nature, and those lusts of the flesh are simply the workings of the prince of the power of the air. He is the spirit that works in the children of disobedience. The lust of the flesh is the working of Satan. Please let everybody who may have held a mistaken idea have that idea obliterated from your mind, just for your own sakes, that you may be saved from error, and not simply from theoretical error, but from sin. Think of this for yourselves, that the idea of sinless flesh mankind is the deification of the devil, because sinlessness belongs only to God, but sin is of the devil. There is one good and that is God. God alone is good. Jesus Christ is the manifestation of God. He was manifested to take away our sin, and in him is no sin. But the flesh and the devil are inseparably connected. The motions of the flesh are the workings of the devil. Sinlessness is an attribute of Deity. Sinless flesh, therefore, would mean that the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience, in the lusts of the flesh, is God. But it is not. Flesh is corruptible. The flesh is sinful; the flesh can not inherit the kingdom of God. The flesh will be opposed to the Spirit of God so long as we have it, but when the time comes that mortality is swallowed up of life, then the conflict will cease. Then we shall no longer have to fight against the flesh, but that sinless life which we laid hold of by faith and which was manifest in our sinful bodies, will then by simple faith be continued throughout all eternity in the sinless body. That is to say, when God has given this witness to the world of his power to save to the uttermost, to save sinful beings, and to live a perfect life in sinful flesh, then he will remove the disabilities and give us better circumstances in which to live. But first of all this wonder must be worked out in sinful man, not simply in the person of Jesus Christ, but in Jesus Christ reproduced and multiplied in the thousands of his followers. So that not simply in the few sporadic cases, but in the whole body of the church, the perfect life of Christ will be manifested to the world, and that will be the last crowning work which will either save or condemn men; and greater testimony than that there is not, and can not be, because there is none greater than God. When God is manifest among men, not simply as God apart from man, but as God in man, suffering all that man suffered, subject to everything that man is subject to, what greater power can be manifested in the universe than that? GCB April 22, 1901, page 405.6

That leaves everybody without excuse, and it gives to us an everlasting foundation upon which we may stand—the Rock Christ Jesus. “A body hast thou prepared me.” What is the body? The church is his body, and “we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.” Oh, if you and I knew what it meant that this body is Christ’s body there would be several results. In the first place, we should lift up our heads and rejoice because the kingdom of God is come nigh unto us, and in his name has come salvation, and strength, the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. We would also realize the sacredness of the body, sinful though it be, because it is the body of Christ, and it would have this effect, that never would we speak slightingly of anybody. Why not? Because when we look at the fall, we see Jesus. It would have this effect: that, realizing that it is Christ’s body, we should know that it should be yielded to him, that he may use this body exactly as he used that body that was born of Mary; and the joy of it would be realization of the possibility of his doing that thing for every one of us. GCB April 22, 1901, page 406.1

No matter what our birth, no matter what our ancestry, no matter what our surroundings, no matter what our training, no matter what condition or disability we have inherited or acquired, we would find that Jesus Christ is able to save from everything. GCB April 22, 1901, page 406.2

It is so strange that it takes us so long to come to the very simple A B C of the gospel. But do not be alarmed and do not be discouraged, my friends, because Jesus Christ, who is the beginning, is also the end. And when you and I have come, slowly it may be, to the beginning, to the A B C, for he is the alpha beta, we have come to the end, for he is the end: he is the omega. He is the author and finisher, perfector of faith: so that when we come to the beginning, lo, we are at the end. So we have simply to remain in the beginning. GCB April 22, 1901, page 406.3

The gospel of Jesus Christ is in the world to-day to bring men back to the beginning; and when the gospel shall have finished its work, and every soul susceptible to the influences of the Spirit of God has yielded to that influence, then will the end come, and the new earth and the new heavens will be here as in the beginning; and the beginning will always continue unto the end; and there will never be any end, because the end will be the beginning. Always fresh, always new, will the earth be; always new will the body be. GCB April 22, 1901, page 406.4

The power by which Jesus is able to subdue all things to himself, the power by which the heavens and the earth shall be made new, is the power by which he takes this cursed body, and works his will in it; finally, by that same power, quickening it, and making it immortal. GCB April 22, 1901, page 406.5

What is this body for?—It is for Christ to dwell in—for sacrifice. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice [Yes, this body, is it prepared for Christ to dwell in, that he might offer it to God a living sacrifice], holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” GCB April 22, 1901, page 406.6

This body is prepared for Jesus to sacrifice continually, that the will of God may be done in it, that our will might be taken away, and that God’s will might be established in the flesh; and that means that we are to be simply the living manifestations, the embodiment of God’s Spirit. GCB April 22, 1901, page 406.7

Do you believe this? Is it so? Now, don’t say, “This is so deep that I can not grasp it.” You can not explain it, but you can believe the fact, that we are made only for him, and that he, by that all-pervading Spirit, can think in us. Is that to be so? “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thought.”—and never think again? If he puts his thoughts away, forsake his thought, what will he have? an empty head? No; God’s thoughts; “for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” GCB April 22, 1901, page 406.8

Don’t you see that when the Spirit is thus received, to be the animator of our frame, when the brain is recognized only as the agent of the thought of God, and that the Spirit is to think through that brain, then it will not be our thought, but God’s thought. Oh, what a high range of thought we shall have then! There will be pure thoughts. And don’t you see that all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge, all the heights and depths of science, are open to the man who has done that. GCB April 22, 1901, page 406.9

Not only that, but you have the power of the mind to control the body; and that is the lesson that you and I have got to learn in this world, if we are among those who are translated, who stand as God’s great sign to the universe, who stand as the perfect sign of his coming—that is, his manifestation here in the flesh,—you and I must learn that perfect submission to God, that perfect yielding of the body to him, that perfect recognition of the fact that this body is not our body at all, but it is Christ’s body, and we must resign all right to it; and all claim upon it, and hand it over to his management; so that the will of the flesh must give way, that the body can be kept under. And when the flesh lusts and clamors for forbidden things, there will be a power there that can say, No; you can not do it. [Voices: “Amen.”] GCB April 22, 1901, page 406.10

Now I know, and I might as well confess to you,—and if I confess any of your sins in confessing my own, why, acknowledge it to the Lord,—I know that one of the principal reasons why I did not, years before I did, realize the power of God to save from my own sinful disposition, was simply my unwillingness to be saved from it. And why? Man loves his own. We were united to the flesh, and there were things that were such a part of this sinful flesh, that you and I found sinful pleasure in, that we could not conceive of happiness even in heaven apart from them. Did you ever hear of such a thing as that? Is that the experience you have ever come in contact with? You could not imagine that there could be happiness apart from that sinful thing. I do not say which particular thing it is. We were willing to let everything else go, but not our darling sin. What joy would there be in life if that had to be taken away? You have met it everywhere. Why, when I come and talk to somebody about the joy of healthful living, and point out certain things that tend directly to sensuality and lust and passion and disease, they say, O what would be the use of living if we could not have any of these things? Did you ever hear people say that? No joy in life if this is to be taken away. GCB April 22, 1901, page 406.11

Don’t you see that that is only the perpetuation of the sin of Eve? When every tree of the garden, everything that was pleasant to the sight and good for food was given to her freely, and the Lord said, Eat all you want of it, and take it freely, then the Devil fixed her mind on that one forbidden fruit, and all the rest was lost sight of. She thought that if she did not have that one thing, she did not have anything to eat. What in the world could she live on? If she did not have that thing all the rest was nothing. What was the use of living if she did not have that thing? That thought eclipsed everything else. GCB April 22, 1901, page 407.1

And the devil has perpetuated that blindness in human flesh, and he has made sin look so attractive to us that we have thought, “Oh, must I be delivered from this thing?” No, we do not put it that way, but, “Must I be separated from that?” We do not call it a deliverance; but, “Must I have this thing taken away from me? Must I give it up?” GCB April 22, 1901, page 407.2

And that is the way the gospel has often been preached. It has been a gospel of giving up. But instead, it is a gospel of receiving. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one who has given up everything, and we are the ones who receive everything. GCB April 22, 1901, page 407.3

Now when we come to the matter of healthful living, for that is all in this, we see it is not giving up this thing, and it is not giving up that thing, and the other thing, as though every joy of life had to be given up; but it is getting our eyes fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ; it is getting our eyes fixed upon that which is spiritual and real, and which is joy, and seeing that the thing which he gives us is so much greater than our highest previous conception of pleasure, that when we take them in God’s way, we wonder how we ever have been satisfied to be ruled by the flesh. GCB April 22, 1901, page 407.4

Now when we get hold of that, we have healthful living in mortal flesh, and sinless lives in sinful flesh; and we shall glory in infirmities; we shall take pleasure even in temptations, in infirmities, that the power of God may rest upon us. Oh, I do not know, I can not conceive, I can not understand, what joys there may be in the world to come; but I know this, that I could be perfectly content never to know any higher joy than this, that Jesus gives us, the experience of the power of Christ in sinful flesh—to put under foot, and make subservient to his will, this sinful flesh. It is the joy of victory; and there can be a shout in the camp when that is done. GCB April 22, 1901, page 407.5

Now this is not theoretical; it is most intensely practical. It is the possession by the Spirit of God. You know what it is to be possessed of the devil; you have heard the expression, “possessed of the devil,” haven’t you? It is a sad fact that so little is the right thing known, that we have to illustrate it by the error. We are “a people for God’s own possession.” Not simple a people that he calls his own, and claims as his property; but the people whom he possesses, the people possessed of God. That is to say, that just as completely as a person may be possessed of the devil, so that he is held captive by him at his will, the old things may pass away, and that person may be possessed of God, so that he is held captive by God, at his will. God’s capture is a free man. Just as the old man found pleasure in serving the devil, even so, and ten thousand times more, will the person find joy in the will of God so that you and I like Christ—nay, not you and I, but Christ in us,—may say, “I delight to do thy will, O my God,” “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” We are to be possessed by him, possessed by the Spirit of God, so that his mind is our mind; as he thinks, we act. That is possible. O, that God would give every one this night, the conception, not only of the possibility of such a thing, but of the joy and blessedness of it, so that even now it might be done! GCB April 22, 1901, page 407.6

Now you and I can not do anything to bring the Spirit of God unto us. We have not power over the Spirit of God. He goes where he will; and nothing that you and I can say, nothing that you and I can do, no service that we can render, no self-denial that we can exercise, can bring the Spirit of God to fill us. Scourge the body if you will, wear hair shirts, and whip yourself with thorns, go with nails in your boots, make pilgrimages upon your bare knees, load yourself with chains,—and men do all these things with perfect sincerity, too, desiring to be freed from sin and filled with the Spirit,—yet you can not bring the Spirit of God in. But let me tell you this: While we can not do anything to bring the Spirit of God into us, we can do a great many things to keep him out; so that when somebody says to me as I talk health reform and healthful living, the yielding of the body to God, so that his will may be manifest in it, they will say, “We are not saved by works.” No; but we are lost by works; and if you and I continue in works that are inimical to the Spirit of God, we shall drive the Spirit of God away, and be lost; therefore, our part is simply to give up, and say that this wicked thing may be taken away from us. Cleanse yourselves “from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” That is why this health reform is presented to us; it is the life of God manifested; it is for us to behold God in his works; it is for us to see the life in all its glorious forms, in the glorious sunlight, in the sparkling water, in the fresh air, and in all means in which God gives us his life, his spiritual life; and then as we yield to that, the more abundant life, greater than can be manifested in any visible thing, will also come in and fill us. GCB April 22, 1901, page 407.7

Why does the Lord let you and me eat? Why has he ordained that our bodies shall be nourished by food and drink? He could keep us alive without our eating, couldn’t he? Why doesn’t he? For what purpose does he let us eat?—That we may live. Yes, that solely. He lets us find pleasure in it, because there is perfect pleasure in everything in the service of God; but he does not let us eat simply that we may enjoy ourselves. No; he lets us enjoy eating in order that we may live. Suppose the Lord let us live without eating. What would every man think, and what would every man say? Why, he would say, “I have got life in myself; I do not depend on anybody; in me is the life principle, inherent in me, and I live by my own power; I do not get anything from outside; I have it right here in me.” Men say that anyhow, in spite of all that God does; but if we had no visible means of support we would forget God, and we would make ourselves gods. So God has ordained that we can get life only from without, take it in the food, the drink, the sunlight, and the fresh air, recognizing that it comes from God, and thus every breath of air is designed by the Lord as a reminder to us of his presence, as a reminder to us that we live by him. Then we yield ourselves to him, and to the life that he gives to us in those gifts. GCB April 22, 1901, page 407.8

But suppose we are unmindful of that; suppose we do not care; suppose we take things that are disapproved by Christ,—we take our food at second hand, and not fresh from God’s hand; we are then doing despite to the blessed gifts of God; we are rejecting his precious gifts, and saying that we can get along very well with only a limited portion of his life. We are perfectly satisfied with that life corrupted by Satan. O, we don’t want to do that! GCB April 22, 1901, page 408.1

Just before closing, this other question might be answered: “Give us a talk on the power of the enemy.” I don’t do that sort of thing; I talk of the power of God. “God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.” Well, I know why that question was asked; because right here some one says. “Yes, but has not Satan power?”—where did he get his life? He got it from God. He is not God. He is not self-existent; he does not perpetuate his own existence; but the very existence of the devil is a mark of the wondrous longsuffering and patience of God;—he still continues his life to that being whose only thought is hatred and rebellion. The gifts of God turned against the giver, constituted Lucifer a rebel. O, what baseness! We have done the same thing, but there is hope for us. The Lord calls upon us to break ranks, to step out from under the banner of Satan, to come out from the ranks of rebellion, and take our stand on his side, so that the power which he has given us may no longer be prostituted to our own selfishness. Be free. What about Satan’s power? Jesus Christ has spoiled principalities, and powers, making a show of them openly, triumphing over them in himself. He has condemned sin in the flesh, he has power over evil, over all flesh, even sinful flesh. Satan’s power is broken, and we are free, and freedom has been proclaimed to all mankind. Read in the twelfth chapter of Revelations, verses 10-12:— GCB April 22, 1901, page 408.2

“And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” GCB April 22, 1901, page 408.3

Don’t quote that as I sometimes see it quoted, that the devil is come down to you “having great power,” knowing that he hath but a short time. He is angry? Why. Because he sees his power waning away; he sees that even the little lease of life that is granted him is about to be forever taken from his grasp. He knows that he has but a short time, and so he is furiously angry. But do not forget that the very fact that the devil is cast down to this earth, is a reason for rejoicing! Marvelous thought that the Lord will bring joy out of that which we have been discouraged over! He brings victory out of defeat; out of the depths of the pit he lifts us up, and makes us sit together with Christ in heavenly places. He can take the child that is born in sin, it may be even the product of lust, and can make that very child to sit with the princes of God’s people. The Lord has shown us this in that he did not conceal his own ancestry from us. We may have mourned over our inheritance: we have mourned the fact that we inherited evil tendencies, sinful natures, we have almost despaired, because we could not break with these inherited evils, nor resist these tendencies to sin: we could not do it ourselves, and often we have been ashamed of them, and of course, we may be ashamed of sin. Men like to conceal the fault of their ancestors, and if there be a blot anywhere in the family, that does not appear when the family record is written. Jesus Christ was “born of the seed of David, according to the flesh,” and in the seed of David was Manasseh, who filled Jerusalem with innocent blood from one end to the other. In that line was Judah the adulterer, and the child born of incest, and likewise the harlot Rahab. All of that class who were set forth as the ancestors of Christ, show that Jesus was not ashamed to call sinful men his brethren; but he said to the Father, “I will declare thy name to my brethren, in the midst of the congregation; I will sing praise to thee.” GCB April 22, 1901, page 408.4

Thus we see that no matter what our inheritance may have been by nature, the Spirit of God has such power over the flesh that it can utterly reverse all this, and make us partakers of the divine nature, giving us freedom from the corruption that is in the world through lust; and so God manifests his power through us. But day by day must the fight be kept up. Never can we relax our vigilance. When by seeing the body of Christ manifest, seeing the Christlife manifest, we have laid hold of it, and we have found that he heals all our diseases as well as forgives all our sins, don’t you and I ever think a moment that now we are strong in our bodies, and we can do what we please. Ah, it is only by continually recognizing the fact that all life and power come from him, and that all his mercies are given to us, that we may keep his life. We must not be presumptuous. We never can get so much of the life of God that we can dispense with it, and live by ourselves alone. Now and in all eternity do we live only by the faith of the Son of God. In the world to come there will only be this song: “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” He is the one who keeps us, and he is the one by whom we live. So now God manifests himself in us in all these various ways, coming very close to us, that we may lay hold upon eternal life, and thus fight the good fight of faith. GCB April 22, 1901, page 408.5

O, may God help us to see some of the glorious possibilities in the gospel! May he enable us, every one of us, to see what a blessed thing it is to know the Lord Jesus Christ,—life eternal,—and the joy of his salvation, yielding ourselves to him every day, so that we may say, “I delight to do thy will, O God; yea, thy law is within my heart, revealing its power even in my sinful, mortal flesh, to the everlasting praise of the glory of his grace. GCB April 22, 1901, page 408.6