02 - Lecture 02
Lecture 2 - The Victory
SECOND LECTURE. THE VICTORY.
"And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. "--- Luke 4:1-13. Read also Matthew 4:1-10; Mark 1:12-13. MY DEAR FRIENDS, The combat of Jesus has reconciled us with that which we ourselves are called on to sustain; His victory will give us the assurance that we may conquer in our turn.
It is our uncertainty as to the result of the warfare which makes us so weak in the hour of temptation. Nothing would be too hard for us, if we were assured of the victory; but we doubt the issue, and this bitter doubt damps our courage. You are tempted by a spirit of languor: you desire to become "fervent in spirit" and "persevering in prayer;" but you feel doubtful whether you can surmount your spiritual slothfulness,---and you go on in spite of your resolutions, dragging yourself wearily along the way in which God would have you to run. You are tempted by a spirit of murmur: under the heavy load of a painful and protracted affliction, you would fain abound in thanksgiving; but you are uncertain whether it will be possible for you to bear up under the grief that crushes you down---and your life is thus wasted in unprofitable regret. You are tempted by a spirit of unbelief: you desire to rest on the Word of God with an unwavering confidence; you feel that there only is your peace, your strength, your sanctification; but you doubt if you will be able to rid yourself of a certain slowness to believe which has been fostered by temperament, by education, by example, by habit---and thus you go on floating between God’s truth and the caviling of your natural heart. You are tempted by a spirit of sensuality: while you abstain from those gross excesses that would dishonor your Christian profession, "you mind the things of the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof," and you feel yourself weighed down under a humiliating yoke which you wish to shake off; but you doubt whether you will be able to accustom yourself to a life of sacrifice and self-denial---and you go on indulging in a selfish and enervating life.
Oh ye who recognize yourselves in this sad picture, come and learn from the history before us that there is no temptation which you may not overcome. Jesus was tempted even as you are; and while the first Adam was vanquished in the garden of Eden, the second Adam conquered in the wilderness. His victory is complete. After forty days of unceasing attacks, after a last desperate assault, the adversary sees himself compelled to raise the siege, crest-fallen and convinced of powerlessness; and Jesus has acquired the right to say, "The Prince of this world hath nothing in me."(John 14:30) Not one of the "fiery darts" of the wicked one could pierce His armor. It is written, "He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin:" (Hebrews 4:15) no sin before the temptation which may conduce to it;: no sin after the temptation proceeding from it. In Him we have "an high priest, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." (Hebrews 7:26) Well, if Jesus has thus conquered, we may conquer also.
Here, again, we must commence by setting aside the mysterious part of our subject, and the questions more interesting than profitable to which it has given rise. The analogy between Christ’s temptation and ours cannot be complete; for as the children of a fallen race, lust, that was unknown to Him, dwelleth in our hearts. Though He took upon Himself those infirmities that sin has brought upon our nature, far be it from us to suppose that He participated in the smallest degree in any unruly inclinations. We may distinguish between three sorts of temptation; that of Jesus, that of Adam, and our own; the first that was without sin both before and after the trial; the second that was without sin before the trial but not after it; and the third that is not without sin either before or after the trial, as St. James teaches us in his Epistle when he says, "Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin." (James 1:14-15) From hence discussions have arisen in the Church concerning the moral character of temptation, and the degree of holiness to which we may attain in this life; but these are questions which seem to us unnecessary, and impossible to solve. However that may be, I shall confine myself here to the application which concerns us in our actual condition, and leave our subject on the practical footing where St. James has placed it in the words I have just quoted. What we must avoid is that lust should "conceive, and bring forth sin:" this you can always do. In all the temptations that you meet with on your way, there is not one which you may not conquer, as Jesus overcame His temptation, and as Adam might have triumphed over his. So you who are tempted by a spirit of languor, you may "have life, and have it more abundantly." (John 10:10) You who are tempted to murmur, you can "rejoice evermore," and "publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all His wondrous works." (1 Thessalonians 5:16; Psalms 26:7.) You who are tempted to unbelief, you can "continue in the faith, grounded, steadfast, unmoveable," (Colossians 1:23; 1 Corinthians 15:58) And you who are tempted by a spirit of sensuality, you can "keep under your body and bring it into subjection," and mortify its deeds through the spirit. (1 Corinthians 9:27; Romans 8:13) You can do it: for, what you have to do, Jesus has already done.
You will say perhaps: Jesus was the Son of God; His victory is no example for us.---If this objection were well founded here, it might as easily be brought forward elsewhere; we must give up placing the example of Jesus before men, and the Holy Ghost would have said in vain that He has "left us an example that we should follow His steps." But this objection arises from a cause which is the key to many other errors both in doctrine and in practice: that is, the losing sight of the Lord’s humanity, which is not less important than His divinity. Yes, Jesus was the Son of God; but He was also the Son of man; and as it was in His human nature that He was tempted, it was also in His human nature that He overcame temptation. In speaking thus, we do not wish to lay aside the fact of the Divine nature of the Lord in the history before us. We do not forget that, immediately before the temptation, Jesus had been declared ’Son of God, filled with the Holy Ghost, and thus strengthened for the conflict which awaited Him. I only wish to draw your attention, my dear friends, to the encouraging truth, that during the conflict itself, the Son of man only appears in Jesus, while the Son of God is, as it were, in the background. Yet not altogether so; He shows Himself but in Satan’s discourses. He reminds Jesus of His title, and makes use of it to tempt Him, first to doubt, then to presumption, and, finally, to ambition; but Jesus does not make use of it to defend Himself. Had He chosen here to display His divine power, He could, as He himself declared in that other dark hour of temptation towards the close of His ministry, "pray to His Father, who would have given Him more than twelve legions of angels." What do I say? He needed no angel; He had but one word to utter and Satan would have fallen to the ground, like the emissaries of the Sanhedrim (John 18:6) in the garden of Gethsemane.---But He does nothing of the kind; He confines Himself to a human sphere of action. He contends against Satan with man’s weaknesses, and with the weapons which are at man’s disposal. He endures hunger, and allows Himself to be approached, addressed, tempted, like a mere man! He upholds Himself by faith in God, and triumphs in the strength Of God (Ephesians 6:10, and following. St. John seems in this passage to make allusion to the combat of Jesus.) like a man. He quotes the Scriptures written by men for men, like a man. As we see Him elsewhere strengthened by an angel in His hour of agony, He whom the angels of God worship, we see Him here leaning upon Moses, He, the Master and Lord of Moses. Wonderful and surprising story! Was it necessary for Him to seek, like us, in the writings of His servant, for answers to the insidious seductions of the evil one? Could He not have found them in the treasures of His own wisdom? Is He not "the only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father," "who is in heaven," and "who speaketh from heaven?" (John 1:18; John 3:13: Hebrews 12:25) Yes; but it was necessary here that He should speak "from the earth," that He might serve as an example to those who are of the earth. (John 3:31) This is so true, that, not content with quoting from the Scriptures only, He chooses in the Scriptures only those passages which apply equally to all believers; while He quotes none of those innumerable testimonies contained in the Scriptures which refer exclusively to Messiah, and assure His final victory: (Psalms 110:1-7; Isaiah 63:1-19, &c. so determined does He appear to draw only from the treasure open to the whole Church. The stranger this may appear to us, the more manifest is the intention. Jesus obtains a human victory, over a human temptation, by human means, in order to teach men that they may overcome as He himself overcame. But more than this. Not only has Jesus conquered in humanity, but also for humanity. Engaged in the conflict in the wilderness as the Savior and representative of man, it was in the name and for the sake of man that He gained a victory, whose glorious results will be reaped by all those who hope in His name. And if He had not conquered for us, how could He strengthen us by His victory to bear the tribulations of this life: "In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer: I have overcome the world?" (John 16:33) He only could "bind the strong man;" but the strong man once bound, He does not enter alone "into his house to spoil his goods," (Matthew 12:29) we also enter behind Him. Satan is already vanquished before he attacks us, and he is rendered the more powerless by finding within us, Him, by whom he was vanquished in the wilderness. In Jesus our victory is so fully secured that the Scriptures speak of it as already won: "Ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one." (1 John 2:14; Romans 8:36) In Jesus all has been accomplished; "we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us;" it only remains for us to share His victory; and to share it we have only to believe in His name. "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." (1 John 5:4) The "roaring lion that walketh about, seeking whom he may devour," (1 Peter 5:8) is doubtless a dangerous adversary; but he has vainly tried his strength against "the Lion of Judah, the Root of David, who hath prevailed," (Revelation 5:5) and to whom the spirit of prophecy speaks thus: "From the prey, my son, thou art gone up; he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?" (Genesis 49:9) He alone is invincible, and He it is who combats for us: "For thus hath the Lord spoken unto me! Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for Mount Zion, and for the hill thereof," (Isaiah 31:4) Fear not; " greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." (1 John 4:4, compare this passage with 2 Kings 6:16, and 2 Chronicles 32:7)
Let us cleave to the certainty that the victory of Jesus ensures ours, and that we shall find in Him a never-failing help, because He has Himself endured and overcome temptation. This is the view of the Holy Ghost in the two passages in the Epistle to the Hebrews that we have already quoted: "For in that He himself hath suffered, being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted;" and again, because "He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."
I might stop here, so powerful is this doctrine, resting firmly as it does on this history, which is the subject of my discourse; but the "weary and heavy laden" soul does not yield so easily, and has need of further encouragement which I cannot refuse. In the hour of temptation two things trouble us: our own utter weakness, and the strength of the temptation. If we look within, we feel ourselves too weak to resist the smallest temptation; and if we fix our mind upon the temptation itself, we find it strong enough to overcome us even in our firmest moods. But let us once again contemplate Jesus in the wilderness, and His triumph will reassure us on both these heads.
You are weak, my dear brother; so weak, so languid, so worn out in mind and body, that you feel yourself unable to resist the smallest temptation. You would indeed be incapable had you to conquer in your own strength: but do you think it was by His own might that your Lord conquered in the wilderness? You fancy Him perhaps a stranger to your weaknesses, calm, unmovable; but who has represented Him thus? Your own imagination, not the Scriptures. They portray the Messiah as "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." They are silent, it is true, on the state of His mind during the conflict in the wilderness, and we have no right to make up for this deficiency, or to calculate to what extent a fast of forty days had exhausted His strength or shaken His courage. But these same Scriptures show Him to us elsewhere in an anguish of spirit that you could never know: in the garden of Gethsemene "sorrowful even unto death," falling on His face, and "His sweat as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground," and on the cross crying out "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Where does He find His support?---in God. The whole object of the temptation is to separate Him from God: first by supplying His own wants without the intervention of God’s providence; then by receiving the inheritance of the nations without God’s gift; and, finally, by displaying His divine glory without God’s command. But Jesus stays Himself entirely upon God; it is not in His own strength that He combats and conquers: it is in the strength of His Father.
Receive instruction, my dear friends. If you are less mighty than Jesus, your God is not weaker than the God of Jesus; let His rock be your rock, and His strength will be your strength. For Jesus, for Adam, for you, this is not a question of strength, but a question of faith. Your own strength cannot deliver you if you do not believe, nor your inherent weakness harm you if you do. This very feebleness can be turned to good account if you know how to make use of it; and your sense of your own weakness compelling you to seek all your strength in God, will cause you to experience all the power of that word: "When I am weak, then am I strong!". Strange paradox! Sublime truth! Instead of wasting your time in discussing it, believe it, live it. You are, my dear brother, feeble, languid, worn out in mind and body, unable to resist the smallest temptation? Well: you are in the very conditions in which you may conquer. It is now that, cured of the illusions of your proud spirit and despairing of yourself, you are ready to "be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might," and "put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." (Ephesians 6:10-11) Cling fast to God, like the branches to the vine: in Him you will find "grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16) In time of need, mark well these words: it is for the time that you will require strength that strength is promised. You would rather receive it beforehand, in order that, casting a complacent glance on your spiritual store, you might lull to rest every apprehension regarding the future. But such is not the Lord’s way. He does not give today provision for tomorrow; but He will certainly give today for today, and tomorrow for tomorrow, The man with the withered hand to whom Jesus said, "Stretch forth thine hand," would never have extended it, had he waited before he obeyed the summons to receive beforehand the power to make the requisite effort; but, at the Lord’s command, he stretched it forth, and lo! he is healed. "If thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God." But you will say again, temptation is strong, terrible, overwhelming. Think you that that of Jesus was less dreadful? Compare His temptation with Adam’s: Scripture invites us to make this comparison; for surely it is not unintentionally that one of these temptations is placed at the beginning of the Old Testament, the other at the beginning of the New, contrasting here, as in all things, the "last Adam" with the "first Adam." Adam was tempted in Eden;· Jesus in the wilderness: Adam in the abundance of all things; Jesus in hunger and want: Adam was tempted once, and fell; Jesus was tempted three times, we may say more, tempted during forty days, and He resisted. And what a temptation! how subtle, how treacherous! mingling so artfully truth and falsehood, good and evil, that it seemed impossible to divide them. This is indeed the masterpiece of the spirit of darkness. We cannot, it is true, weigh in the same balance the Lord’s temptation with Adam’s, or with our own; but we know that there was a struggle in His mind, that by some unfathomable mystery there was a fearful conflict, of which the anguish of Gethsemane and Golgotha may give us some idea. But. what matters the exact force of the temptation? it suffices for us to know that "Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." God, who permits the temptation is also He who measures it; and doubt not that He took care to strengthen His Son for the conflict according to His need. He will do the same for you, my dear friends; and therefore no temptation present nor to come should seem to you irresistible. For, remember this; though it is the devil and not God who tempts you, it is God and not the devil who measures the temptation, and who adapts it to the degree of strength which you possess, or which He intends to give you. This consoling ’truth is clearly pointed out to us in the history of Job. (Job i. and ii.) Did Satan ever appear more virulent against any poor servant of God? Yet he is always tethered, and God lengthens or shortens the chain as He thinks fit, but Satan can never shake it off; and the Holy Ghost allows us in this history to see it, that we may know that the chain is round the devil’s neck even when we cannot perceive it. Without God’s express permission Satan can attempt nothing against Job: "Put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath." Then, in granting the permission, God still "makes a hedge about him." He commences by reserving his person: "All that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand." When this first temptation has strengthened Job to endure a fiercer attack, God, again solicited by Satan, gives His servant’s person into the devil’s hand, only reserving his life. (Observe the gradation that Satan follows in the temptations which he places successively before Job: the loss of fortune, the loss of family, the loss of health, and had he been allowed to go further, the loss of life. A kind of proud sentimentality would have induced us to reverse the order; but" the old serpent" has greater experience than we possess, and the cleverness of the plan he pursues in this wonderful history is on the authority of God himself.) "Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life." Had Job died in the first bewilderment caused by this new attack, he might perhaps have given way to despair, and justified the adversary’s insolent prediction: "He will curse Thee to Thy face." But now he has time to reflect, to listen to Elihu, to humble himself before God; and in spite of some rash words wrung from him in the bitterness of his affliction, he remains steadfast, he sends the adversary away defeated, he recovers in a twofold measure the favor of his God, and he is set forth in the New Testament as an example of patience. ( It may appear strange that Job should be mentioned by St. James as an example of patience. How can we reconcile this eulogium with the bitter complaints expressed by Job in the 3rd chapter of his history! The reason is that God is more merciful in His judgments than we are in ours. He measures the patience of His saints, not only by the degree of their submission, but also by that degree of submission combined with that of their sufferings, as one man may exhibit more physical strength by dragging painfully along a considerable load, than another in carrying with ease a much lighter burden. Above all, God looks on the heart; and its inward motions are but imperfectly revealed by those outward manifestations which are alone visible to the eye of man. One who gives way to bitter complaints may have, in the depths of his heart, more genuine submission to God’s will, than another who knows better how to modify the outward expression of his inmost sentiments. The truth of this last remark is confirmed by a deeper study of Job’s com- plaints. There is, in the very boldness which characterizes them, and which we cannot always defend, something that reveals a soul at home with God, familiar with God, and that clings to Him with an unflinching grasp: this confidence honors and pleases God more than the irreproachable moderation of many others. Job’s heart is explained to us by that of Jeremiah, when he pronounced a word which may offend more than one reader, but which I am sure is approved of God. "Righteous art thou, Oh Lord, when I plead with thee; yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments," Jeremiah 12:1)
Comfort yourselves by the thought that the devil can never tempt you without the consent of your heavenly Father, nor beyond what your heavenly Father allows. (The same doctrine as in Luke 22:31-32) Without this authorization, and beyond these limits, he can do nothing against you. Never say that you are tempted beyond your strength: under the garb of accusing the devil you are accusing God himself If the historical proof that I have just brought forward does not appear to you sufficient, if you require a formal declaration from the Lord’s hand, here is one; but after that, be satisfied, and doubt no more. It is written, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man:" there is for the past; and now for the future: "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." (1 Corinthians 10:13) What more do you require? Recall the past: "no temptation hath taken you but what is common to man!" that is to say, but what is proportioned to human nature, and consequently what human nature may overcome; I say for human nature, not such as it was in Jesus, nor even such as it was in Adam, but such as it is in you. If there were for Adam before his fall, or for Jesus in the wilderness, this or that temptation which exceeds the powers of your nature to resist, it is a sufficient reason for it to have been spared you. And more than this, God guarantees to you the future, and guarantees it in the name of His own faithfulness: "God is faithful, and will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able," (you, and not Jesus, not Adam,) but "that ye are able, but with the temptation he will make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." After this, dear brother, if you tell me of a temptation that is stronger than you are, which you cannot overcome, I must choose between your word and God’s word, since you affirm what God has said could never happen. No! whatever appearances may be, as long as God shall be God, and the Bible shall be His word, it is not possible that we should ever be exposed to a temptation which we are unable to resist.
What we have just learned from the victory of Jesus in the wilderness, Scripture asserts elsewhere, and supposes it everywhere. It is never a fatal necessity for us to succumb to temptation. Compelled to choose among various testimonies to this effect, I shall only select a few connected in some way with our subject, or alluding to it.
We find some of the clearest testimonies in this same 91st Psalm which Satan rashly sets before us, and which we should not have thought of, had it not been for the unworthy use which he makes of it against our Master. This Psalm is entirely filled with promises of victory, but remember above all the words which follow immediately those upon which Satan takes his stand: "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet." Why didst thou not finish thy quotation, thou cruel enemy of our souls? was it not because this verse concerns thee? The lion and the serpent, these two images twice associated in this short verse may depict all the foes we have to dread! but they point in a special manner to the leader who guides and inspires them! and who is likened in Scripture sometimes to a lion, at others to a serpent. (1 Peter 5:8; 2 Timothy 4:17; Revelation 12:9, and Revelation 20:2) Upon this lion we shall advance! this serpent we shall trample under foot. The assurance is again given us in these words of the apostle, where Satan is mention by name: "The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly." (Romans 16:20) Here St. Paul alludes to the first prophecy: "His seed shall bruise thy head," (Genesis 3:15) and shows us what is very evident, if we study attentively this prophecy, that victory is promised not only to the Messiah, but also to the whole family of believers. We have the same doctrine in St. James, who, doubtless, when he penned these words, had in his mind’s eye the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you; draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." (James 4:7-8) But this is surpassed by the fullness of the promises that the Holy Ghost has given us in St. John: "The Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifested, and the children of the devil." (1 John 3:8-9) This is not the place to dwell on the meaning of this difficult passage, (The word sin, explained by dwelling in sin, is used, not in the sense of a brother overtaken in a fault, but of a heart given up to sin.) but it is undeniable that it must at least signify that the child of God has in himself a secret virtue by which he can overcome the enemy, and that he is never compelled by an irresistible power to give him the victory.
You must not bring forward your own experience to prove the reverse. I know well that there is not a single day in our lives that is not marked by some fall---but whose fault is this? You must not even quote the example of the least unfaithful of the Lord’s servants, of His saints, of His prophets, of His apostles: I have not forgotten that however irreproachable their lives may be in comparison with ours, (Luke 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 2:10; 2 Kings 20:3, &c.) however incontestable the right they have acquired to say, "Brethren, be followers together of us," (Php 3:17, &c.) they yet have reason to say, "in many things we offend all!" (James 3:2. We are aware that there is a body of Christians, known by their great services and great examples, which teaches that the believer may attain here below to a state of sinless perfection, and which points out to us here and there some of Christ’s followers who have attained perfect sanctification. Our Wesleyan brethren appear to have made a confusion between the right and the fact. As a principle, Scripture establishes that we are never compelled to yield to temptation, but it does not exhibit a single man who, in practice, never falls. It is, I think, through a defective exegesis that anyone can endeavor to prove the sinless perfection of such or such an Old or New Testament saint. Our biblical instinct, if I may be allowed to use the expression, would certainly be offended if we heard sin spoken of as a necessity; but it is equally so when we hear it said this man or that woman no longer commits sin. It may be objected that these two views, which I attribute to Scripture, contradict each other. I do not think so, for the simple reason that they are both to be found in the Word of God; but I grant that human logic cannot reconcile them. We have here one of those numerous anomalies which we find in Scripture, and which renders it impossible for us to reduce their teaching to a mere system, without losing sight of one part of the truth, and doing violence to the other part in order to be more rigorously consistent than we can be in our present condition.) but is this the result of some fatal and imperious necessity? Ah, the holier they are the more such a supposition will fill them with indignation and horror. Go and tell a Noah that he could not avoid being intoxicated in his tent; a Jacob, that he could obtain only by a lie the promised blessing; a Moses, that it was impossible for him to glorify God at Meribah; a David, that he could not resist the attractions of Bathsheba; a Hezekiah, that he could not conquer his feelings of vanity; a Job, that he could not refrain from his rash mumurings; a Zachariah, that he could not believe the words of the angel; a St. Peter, that he could not confess his Master in the court of the high priest,---and you would see them, one and all, striking upon his breast, lifting up his eyes to heaven and saying: "Oh Lord, righteousness belongeth unto Thee, but unto us confusion of face!" (Daniel 9:7) Every time we fall, it is through our own fault; it is because. we have not made a faithful use of the resources, always sufficient, that God has placed at our disposal that we might stand firm. At all events, "let God be true, but every man a liar." (Romans 3:4) Let His faithfulness be put out of the question. "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth he any man." (James 1:13) . . . My brother, my dear brother, "lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees." Fight on with courage, with confidence. You say, Oh, if I were assured of conquering! Well, you can always conquer in Jesus: we are not fatalists, we are Christians. Do not accept your falls as a matter of course. Do not live knowingly and voluntarily in any sin. "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:21)
Again, learn of Jesus, the Conqueror in the wilderness, the immense importance of a single victory. In the Lord’s history the temptation was one of those critical epochs, that may prove the turning-point upon which depends the whole existence, as a battle lost or won may decide the final result of a whole campaign. The victory of Jesus, placed as it is, not only keeps Satan at a distance for a season, but abates his presumption; and when he returns for a fresh conflict, it will be enfeebled by the presentiment of another defeat. There are also for you such decisive days; perhaps today is one of them. Consider well its privileges and its responsibility. If you fight valiantly, if you gain a complete victory, you may be able to put him to silence forever; but if you hesitate, if you leave the issue doubtful, you will have him prowling continually around you. Yet one moment of weakness, think you, only one moment, and it was a moment chosen by the tempter for a last effort, a final struggle which was either to destroy his hopes, or to revive them. . . . . . Courage then, stand fast; do not give way one inch, nor delay one second; leave the enemy no illusion; show him that he is losing his time and his trouble; and from your reception of his attacks compel him to recognize in you the disciple of the Master who conquered him in the wilderness!
It is no easy task to conquer . . . . No human enterprise requires such a firm resolve as the warfare of faith; and it is the secret consciousness of this great inward struggle that keeps you in this languid state. Yes; but consider the joy of the victory! Think of the joy of Job delivered out of all his distresses, and sanctified through suffering! Think of the joy of the three young men escaped from the fiery furnace, and of Daniel taken out of the lions’ den! Think, above all, of the joy of Jesus returning from the victory: "Look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:2) What will not be your joy also, when you have overcome this very temptation which had hitherto appeared to you insurmountable; a joy all the greater that by your triumph you will "strengthen your brethren," (Luke 22:31) as Jesus by His victory has strengthened you. Amen.