Manuscript Releases, vol. 9 [Nos. 664-770]

MR No. 693—To Overcome as Christ Overcame

John pointed the people to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world. He said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). There is a great deal in that “taketh away.” The question is, shall we keep on sinning as though it were an impossibility for us to overcome? How are we to overcome? As Christ overcame. He prayed to His heavenly Father; we can do the same, and that is the only way. Then, we are to overcome something, for it is stated that those who shall see Him in His beauty shall be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. 9MR 76.1

Now, if there is a spot or wrinkle in your character, is not now the very time for you to begin to understand what that defilement is, that you may trust in the blood of Christ to wash it away? 9MR 76.2

“How shall I,” says the trembling one, “put it away?” You are to say, “I will try.” But you are to put it away by believing that Christ is your Saviour today, and that He cleanseth you from all unrighteousness. You have the lesson in the word that was spoken. When tempted to speak wrong, and do wrong, resist Satan and say, “I will not surrender my will to your control. I will cooperate with divine power and through grace be conqueror.” 9MR 76.3

Satan says to Christ, “It is certain that the angels shall have charge over You and bear You up in their hands lest at any time You shall dash Your foot against a stone. But what did he leave out of that quotation? He was to be kept in the way. In all Thy ways. That was not His way at all. God's way is Christ's way. There is a plan of salvation laid for the race that Christ should not work a miracle on His own account to relieve Himself of any of the necessities of humanity, and He was kept in all His ways. The enemy did not quote that at all, but the angel shall keep Thee lest at any time Thou shalt dash Thy foot against a stone. He was to bear Him up. 9MR 76.4

Now the enemy will have all these attractions for us and the question is which has the most weight with us. Is it to put ourselves in the channel of the bright rays of the Sun of Righteousness, to go into a meeting and consider that there is the place to be a Christian and that out of the meeting we are to lay it off as a man lays off his overcoat? Are we thus to lay off our religion? Watch unto prayer, says Christ. 9MR 77.1

Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation. The temptations will surround us just as long as we live. Satan will try us in one way, and if he doesn't overcome us, he will try us in another way. Thus his efforts will never cease. 9MR 77.2

But we are always to remember that we are members of the royal family, subject to the Heavenly King, and we are born anew with a new character unto God. The old cheap character, the frivolous character, the character which leads to the world, to pride, vanity, and to folly, we have parted with. We have left that, but not in our own strength. 9MR 77.3

We have asked wisdom of God, and He says He giveth to all men. How? In such a stinted measure? No; liberally and upbraideth not. And what does He say? You ask in faith and do not waver about it. There is the trouble; we go from our petitions and do not know whether we are blessed or not. We say, I wish that I did know. What does that mean? “You said it, Lord, but I don't believe it”? 9MR 77.4

You must ask without wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed. He is tossed right between the waves. One wave after another comes, and our faith goes out like water out of a leaky vessel. It is to believe and to watch unto prayer.—Manuscript 83, 1891, 4, 5. 9MR 78.1

Why do not those who claim to believe the truth show by their actions that they are sanctified through the truth, and not conformed to the world? Why do they not come out from the world and be separate? The time for us to represent the self-denial, the purity and holiness of our religion is today. The time will soon pass when we can individually deny self daily, and take up the cross and follow Jesus. 9MR 78.2

Oh, when I think what the church in_____might be if they were only Christians, what good influences they might exert if they only followed the Lord Jesus fully. I am bowed to the earth with a weight of sorrow I cannot express, because I know that the large number who expend all their earnings in dress, in attending concerts, in administering to their own pleasure, are not Christians. They have not the mark of God's people. They have not the meekness and lowliness of Christ, thus cannot shine as lights in the world. They conform to the world, and their influence is of the same character as that of the world. 9MR 78.3

Whenever persons are truly converted, their moral taste is changed. In all their expenditures they will have a single purpose. Keep the glory of God in view, to have a right influence in the church, and in all their actions to testify to worldlings that they are children of God, that through faith they have been made partakers of Christ's self-denial, of His great love for perishing souls. They will constantly be afraid that they will lift a worldly standard in the place of the banner of Jesus Christ. 9MR 78.4

What an account will those in_____have to give who have the Bible to guide them as to the spirit and action they must have in order to lead souls out of darkness to the path cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in. How much money is expended in order to follow the promptings and desires of a carnal heart, to please and glorify self. How much means might flow into the Lord's treasury that is employed upon self. And in the judgment those poor tempted souls who have lived to please themselves will see these things as God has estimated them. They will see whom they might have saved and helped if they had not been so absorbed with self. 9MR 79.1

Everyone who has a knowledge of the truth has a work to do to come into sympathy with Christ. “Ye are laborers together with God.” The salvation of the soul is above every other interest; how much higher than every other enterprise is measured by the cross of Calvary. Christ's servants will work the works of Christ.—Manuscript 10, 1892, pp. 3, 4. 9MR 79.2

White Estate

Washington, D. C.,

March 1, 1979.