Christ in Temptation
5^^j%/ HEIST is witn you in — tempta- ’ tion. The hour of temptation in the believer’s experience is one in which lie may especially and safely rely upon the nearness to him of the Lord. Tried Himself in this crucible, as none ever were. He is prepared by all the appliances of His power, all the restraints of His grace, and all the sympathy of His love, to succor and deliver them that are tempted. Tempted in all points as you are, He knows how to foil the adversary, to quench the dart, and to enable you, the single and the weak one, to put to flight ten thousand foes. Tempted
(119 )
believer! your faith, in the truth of the Bible, your confidence in the God of the Bible, your loyalty to the Saviour of the Bible, your acceptance of the salvation of the Bible, your comfort from the promises of the Bible, jouv enjoyment of the hope of the Bible, assailed and tampered with by Satan, fear not! Greater is He who is with you than they who are against you. ’ ‘’The Lord hioweth how to deliver the godly &iit of temptation Take heart, then, tempted believer! you shall come forth from the fiery furnace, from this painful discipline, of which all the saints of God are partakers, with your faith more firmly grounded, your love more deeply rooted, your heart more thoroughly purified, your hope of glory more unclouded, and that Divine Intercessor for His tempted ones, all the more precious to your heart, who says, ‘’Satan hath desired to have you that he might sift you as wheat hut Ihave prayed for thee that thy faith fail not.^^ O thou Satan-tempted soul, “Z^?, / am with you alway!”
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Many a man has found his life a failure. He sought but never found what he seeks. All a man can desire may be found in Christ.
One day after the leader had read the thirty-fourth Psalm, in which occurs this promise: “They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing;” as so3n as a proper opportunity occurred, a young man arose and said:
“There was a time when the question of my salvation was just reduced to a matter of dollars and cents. The naked question was whether I could afford to become a Christian. I had been for a long time under conviction of sin. I knew I must perish if I should die as I then was. I thought I was anxious to be a Christian. I had been an ambitious youno: man, ambitious to be rich; I had fair prosj)ects of becoming so. I saw at once I must make great sacrifices if I became a Christian. I must give up all my cherished plans and schemes. Giving up all these, I knew not how much more was involved. I saw that I might be poor all my days, instead of being rich, and how poor was more than I could tell. The adversary assailed me just in this way.
“Tou are doing very right to give attention to the subject of religion. It is a very important subject. But you are doing very wrong to make the sacrifice you must to become a Christian; it is unreasonable. Tou cannot afi’ord it. 1S<0 one has a right to throw away his blessings, health is a blessing, and you are discussing the question of being poor all your days, when you have every advantage for becoming rich. Be religious if you will, but by all means be rich; and then with a contented mind you can afford to be religious.
“At the same time the words of Jesus rung in my ears and knocked at my heart: He that will not forsake all that he hath cannot be my disciple.” If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.’ ‘How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of heaven.’
“The devil said, you do not quote the Scriptures correctly. It is hard for them who trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of heaven. You can have riches and not inrust in them. You are not called to make a beggar of yourself all your life long in order to go to heaven. This would be very unreasonable; and you are never required
124: CKRIST EVER WITH YOF.
to do any thing unreasonahle to get to heaven. Be religious if yon will, but by all means be reasonable. Do not make a fool of yourself and in your folly throw your blessings away from you.
‘’I know that Christ required me to give up all for him. I knew that I could not have my own way in the matter of salvation. There I hung, just on that hinge; balancing the question whether I would be rich and be without salvation, or whether I would be poor and have salvation.
“It was a dreadful struggle, and Satan helped me into trouble all he could and made it seem hard. I thought I was willing to give up all dishonest and wrong ways of getting riches. But why should I be called upon to give up honest ways of seeking and obtaining the good things of this world for the sake of Christ? That was the point of the struggle.
“It was when I was in just that state of perplexity that my eyes fastened upon that tenth verse of the thirty-fourth Psalm: ‘They that seek the Zord shall not want any good tiling I said to myself, what more do I want than that? What more could be promised? Here is something more and something better than uncertain riches — uncertain about gaining them — uncertain about retaining them after all. But if I seek the Lord 1 shall not want any good thing.
“1 needed just that passage at that time, and God by his Spirit helped me to believe in his faithfulness to fulfil his own word. On that text, as on a hinge, my heart turned to seek the Lord, and I gave up cheerfully all my fancied wealth for the sake of a saving interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. The load of guilt was gone, and I felt that I had salvation through the blood of the Lamb.
The struggle was over, and my peace flowed as a river.
“Some unconverted, awakened sinner here may ask me, ‘How about that promise?’ 1 will answer. When my heart began to trust God I forgot all about the promise. I had all my heart desired in Jesus Christ. But God did not forget that promise though I did. Of this world’s goods I have had all I could have asked and even more. But best of all, / have been made alive unto Christ forever, I am going home to die no more. For me it is not death to die. I thank God for that thirty-fourth Psalm; it led me to trust God through Jesus Christ.”
“Oh make but trial of his love,
Experience will decide
How blest are they, and only they,
Who in his love confide.”