Overcoming and inheriting all things (Quality: Average, incomplete)

[0:00] and the seventh verse as you think on a word like this from which I hope grace will be given to say something to you you will wonder many of you if you can have a living interest therein if you are indeed the character that is referred to he that overcometh this is a great word and when you think of how it is opened up in the scriptures he that overcometh shall inherit all things the contemplation of it seems overwhelming and yet as grace is given

[1:23] I desire to say something to you on it as it is a word that seems to have rested on my mind and first of all it brings before us a truth that it will be well for preacher and people alike to ponder in their hearts the word overcometh implies that there will be a conflict a struggle and if you remember in the word of God the life of the righteous is often illustrated from that viewpoint sometimes as running a race let us run with patience the race that is set before us so run that ye may obtain sometimes it refers to the life of the righteous as being a contest fight the good fight of faith lay hold upon eternal life sometimes it is said to be a wrestling we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers and against the rulers of darkness in high places and other illustrations could be searched out but there is one thing that I would like as grace is given to emphasize in each instance if you have the mercy to be a sinner born again if you are indeed living the life of the righteous then if that life is to you as a race you will win in it you will not miss the prize given at the end of it if you are engaged in that good fight even the good fight of faith you will not be a loser in that conflict you will not be defeated if you should be one who does wrestle against spiritual wickedness in high places against principalities and against powers you will not be thrown in the conflict and be a beaten foe because you will be like the character in the text he that overcometh

[4:50] God has guaranteed to all engaged in living the life of the righteous the righteous also shall hold on his way remember that and now the question arises are you the character in the text and it refers to a sinner born again does that describe you is that the character you desire to possess is it what you wait on God is to be he will give you evidence and yet more evidence that you are a sinner born again do the hymn writer's words help you before

[5:54] God assure my conscience of her part in the redeemer's blood and bear the witness with my heart that I am born of God it is a great mercy to be a sinner born again you could not tell of a greater mercy than to be such a character I would like to feel that many of us under union chapel rule have been made such characters we are here before God with that great mercy bestowed upon us sinners born again and while we cannot say much about our interest in things divine we can indeed declare one thing

[6:54] I know whereas I was blind now I can see and we are here this Sabbath afternoon desiring to be before God and to give diligence to make our calling and our election sure and to do that you must be made the character in the text he that overcometh and now I look at some things wherein a sinner born again is enabled to overcome and yet I have no doubt whatever if you told out somewhat of what your life is in living the life of the righteous you could tell much more about being overcome than you could about being he that overcometh and there

[8:00] I want to emphasize what may seem to be a paradox it is as you overcome and realize your own weakness your inability to do what you have in your heart to do that you will become in the ultimate issue he that overcometh shall in Jesus looking up all beside and therein you will be he that overcometh remember that I will make that plain as the Lord shall help me in opening up the subject he that overcometh shall inherit all things and now when a sinner is born again he begins to find as soon as he is that he meets with opposition as he was born he is in the world and of it he lives his life after the flesh the things of the flesh all that he meets with at that time in the world as he lives and moves in it fits in with what he feels inside and accords with what he is by nature because he is just in the earth and of it but when a sinner is born again he begins to find immediately there is opposition and he finds that he has now a war to wage he is engaged indeed in a fight he is now set out in a race wherein as he runs all beneath the sun will become as less and hindrances to impede his progress in running as his soul desires first and

[10:41] I might say that one of the earliest things that a sinner born again will learn that he must seek divine aid to overcome is what he is by nature and the enmity to truth arising from it the word of God is very terrifying in its description of what one is by nature the carnal mind is enmity against God and is not subject to the law of God and neither indeed can be the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned and as you and I were born it is a very solemn consideration that our attitude to

[11:49] God is as I have told you often I tell you again we will not have this man to reign over us and now that enmity to truth is to be overcome must be overcome and it means that you have to be on your watch tower desiring that where sin hath abounded grace shall much more abound you can remember before you were born again some of us can as you listen to the gospel being preached that in your heart there was a resentment of what was declared and you felt as you were then as you were born that you wanted none of it and you made up your mind that you would have none of it if you could do as you like and now it is a great mercy for a sinner not to be left to do as he likes because if he is and he is allowed to live like that and to die in such a case there is no question whatever that he will go down into eternal misery and all preachers sent of

[13:30] God to preach put together could never tell you a millionth part of what that means for a sinner to be lost a sinner to go down into eternal misery oh it is good when a sinner is born again that he begins to wage a war with a great eye inside you were singing about it before the sermon oh crucify this self that I know more in me but thee may live and that is fighting the good fight of faith that is how you become the character in the text he the overcoming enmity to truth is terrible it has made the world just what it is the wicked world it is overrun with wickedness beyond words to describe it is just man at war with his maker enmity to truth as I have said we will not have this man to reign over us our lips are our own our lives we shall live them as we please who is lord over us and that is man as he is born and it was you and the preacher too as we were born and now what a mercy if you are he that overcomes if every day all day you wage war with what you are by nature it is a very solemn conflict to be engaged in very painful very humbling very wearying but though the corruptions of thy heart daily new cause of grief impart still pray that all thy lust be slain nor shalt thou seek his face in vain he that overcometh and then there will be the world to overcome because you know as well as I do that although you hope you are a sinner born again the world makes altogether too big an impression on you so that you are made carnally minded through what you see in the world as you live and move in it much mischief comes in at

[16:37] I gain as you go about the world and I like good flavors petition oh may mine eye kept close it be to what concerns me not to see and now the world I have no time to go into the details of it but it is very far reaching not only as you go about the streets and see the shops and what is in the windows and those things that appeal to you and set your minds on the stretch that you would like this and that and the other which you can do without you have got to be he that overcometh the world and remember godliness with contentment is great gain and be content with such things as ye have yes and I say here and I am not fitting caps on but I have got to say it he that overcometh the world and that means if your name is on a church rule and if you are a sinner born again you must have little to do with that world which is the world of the radio and the television and that which will only bring inside you the world that is outside suffer the word of exhortation you will soon find the outcome of it if you dally with it to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace he that overcometh the world

[18:43] God enables his dear people to do it at times sometimes in the early dealings of God with a poor sinner when he is born again he makes his grace so real and powerful that the poor sinner realizing it overcoming all that he is by nature can look on all the world has got to offer and choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season and say let others stretch their arms like seas and grasp in all the shore grant me the visits of thy face and I desire no more he that overcometh the world but then there is this to be overcome our inability to do good there is a very great danger in our denominational life and it has wrought untold mischief and that is

[20:03] Satan taking advantage of those who are in our denominational life to bring them to view things with a fatalistic eye and Satan sometimes gains an advantage by stressing our inability to do good and misquoting scriptures remember remember whenever Satan quotes scripture he misquotes it he quotes scripture which is of God with a devilish aim to confound and confuse a sinner born again and he will quote this scripture and without me ye can do nothing and leave it there but you and

[21:10] I if we are sinners born again are not allowed to simply look at that scripture and think because it declares without me ye can do nothing that we must do nothing how can you do nothing and be he that overcomes your inability to do good is to be overcome because God has made a sweet blessed provision for divine aid to be afforded if ye being evil know how to give good things unto your children how much more shall your father in heaven give the holy spirit to them that ask him oh this inability to do good is to be overcome and grace is afforded to overcome it but the word of the

[22:15] Lord is I will be inquired of by you or house of Israel to do these things sometimes you feel a terrible sense of prayerlessness and you may fall a prey to it and that is a very solemn consideration and yet that prayerlessness is to be overcome God is able to make all grace abound toward you I will pour upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication there is help to be had if you as a sinner born again are concerned to pray and likewise to praise you may lament how you feel that you are so hard hearted and while you are aware you have manifold mercies to be thankful for there is this inability to do good and you feel

[23:39] I would but cannot pray I would but cannot praise but the text says he that overcometh what then you begin like this oh for a glance of heavenly day to take this stubborn stone away and you should remember in trying to pray trying to praise however unfeeling you seem to be however earth bound you are however unfit as it were to appear before God I say you should remember that word I being in the way the Lord met with me and brought me to the house of my master's brethren Lord teach us to pray create in me a clean heart oh God renew a right spirit a thankful spirit within me all to be in the way of prayer the way of praise however far off from

[24:52] God you may seem to be he that overcomes his inability to do good he has got a will to do it because he is a sinner born again with a new heart a new spirit and the new will therein and that will refer also to the word of God it seems very solemn to me sometimes our attitude to the word of God that while it is the holy bible book divine all we seem to have so little concern within to search the sacred pages although in looking into the written word poor sinners born again are brought in touch with him who is the incarnate word but you want to listen to the news this is the news what the word of

[25:59] God tells us no correction no amendment ever needed do it and what is more it is good news whenever you look into it as a sinner born again as you read it with enlightened eyes it will be good news good tidings of great joy it will show you as you read it whatever is your case there will be a right outcome whatever are your circumstances he whose word it is will unravel every tangled skein in life make crooked things straight and rough places plain and level down every mountain and make his goodness pass before you in the way do remember that he that overcometh his inability in searching the scriptures verse oh sometimes when you are helped to do it how good it is

[27:11] I rejoice in thy word as one that find that great spoil anybody will not only all saw way all there are things to be overcome in coming up to worship God you have your everyday life to live you have duties that must be done and some duties being in the sphere that you are can be of such a nature that at times you cannot be found in the attitude of worship in the house of prayer although you have it in your heart to be there as opportunity is afforded but you must not forget what the word of God says come for all things are now ready come and worship

[28:18] God if the opportunity is afforded you and they all with one consent began to make excuse and it says a terrible scripture I feel and they made light of it think of it for a sinner to come and meet with a sinner's friend and get all the good that can be conveyed when a poor sinner is found at Jesus' feet to receive of his word and to make light of it the Lord deliver you from ever doing that because if you should be a sinner born again and you miss opportunities in going up to worship God and getting good for your soul if you should be such a character you will find when you toss on your dying bed that you will lie there quite a while and find you have got thorns in your dying pillow wherein you have failed in being many a time he that overcometh his inability to do good when there was help in God to do it suffer the word of exhortation my friends

[29:50] I am here not to frighten you or to flatter you but as grace is given to show you what is true to preach and to teach with a desire that you may have that religion which would do to live by and die by and to possess it you must be he that overcometh overcometh not only so he that overcometh I said there was the great eye in us to overcome at the first the enmity to truth that is inherent in our nature but there is your natural temperament to overcome and you know what that is each of us has got a natural temperament and it must be overcome if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his

[30:53] I have thought much of that scripture he that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city Rutherford said all that I had not of myself and now you look back along life's way and you dear young people remember it too although you cannot look back very far but you who can do look back along life's way and see how often you have brought mischief on your head through falling a prey to your natural temperament yielding to your own spirit and what you are by nature and now it is to be overcome the word of God tells us yes let this mind be in you that was in Christ

[31:56] Jesus what you and I must possess is the mind of the Lord he that overcometh overcometh self a great victory that is to do sometimes overcome self much might be said along that line of thought but then either overcometh there are our circumstances to be overcome sometimes you find everyday new straits attend and you wonder where the scene will end and if you fall a prey to your natural temperament you will go down in the midst of these circumstances as though there was no help in God no hope in God and yet your name is on a church rule be ashamed of yourselves then if that is how you behave because this word tells us he that overcometh and he alone shall inherit all things and look at the beautiful blessed outcome

[33:26] I will be his God and he shall be my son what an amazing recompense for being engaged in such a warfare I will be his God and he shall be my son our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name how is it that we do overcome in our circumstances when you know not what a day may bring forth and you look at your circumstances and you say oh lord we know not what to do but our eyes are upon thee yes and as your eyes are upon him with whom you have to do so you begin to overcome your circumstances and you will feel all my times are in thy hand all events at thy command one more thing I touch on ere I look at the subject from the other viewpoint of it he that overcometh shall inherit all things and now as you live your life in the world go about in it there will be error and evil combined to overcome if you are a sinner born again especially if your name is on a church rule and you are desiring to hold fast your profession of the faith which you have made you will meet with many a shaft many a fiery dart will come from hell itself but the world in which you live and move will look on you and seek to undo you ridicule you if possible overturn you in what you profess and that means a fight a struggle you need much grace to overcome in the midst of it and this will help you if on my face for thy dear name shame and reproaches be all hail reproach and welcome shame if thou remember me and now go back a moment to what I said about what your natural temperament may be your disposition as you are found in the world having to fight and combat with error and evil you will need much grace to rise above your natural temperament your disposition otherwise you will find something in you will be compromising you will be keeping silence when it is a time to speak and sometimes you will be speaking when it is a time to keep silence

[37:00] I will keep my mouth with a bitten bridle while the wicked is before me the selmist said there is a great word let your yea be yea yea and your yea be yea lest ye fall into condemnation either overcome it error evil you will overcome error like this lead me in thy truth and teach me in thy light shall we see light and it says beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of god and if you are a sinner born again you will inevitably find sooner or later and the sooner the better there is something in that which is error that will not fit in with what god has taught you in your soul's experience and it will confuse you what is of god is always light and it opens up and is made plain before the eyes of our faith error is always confusing and confounding and if you should in any way yield to it you will find ere long you are in a labyrinth from which only god as he is pleased to do it can extricate you remember that then shall we know if we follow on to know the law yes let my heart be sound in thy statutes that I be not ashamed and I might name one more thing about this overcoming either overcoming you will need to overcome the fear of man the fear of man bringeth a snare and because of those with whom you have to do it may be where you labour to earn the bread which perishes you may fall a prey at times and be ready to temporise compromise yield a little but it will not avail you this is the way walk walk in it he that overcometh shall inherit all things yes and regarding the fear of man who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that should die who when all is said and done is just a blade of grass all flesh is grass and what greater honour can there be than for you to let it be known whose you are and whom you serve ashamed of Jesus just think on this

[40:42] Jesus and shall it ever be a mortal man ashamed of thee he that overcometh the Lord make you that character and the preacher too what does it say he that overcometh shall inherit all things all things and just think how many sermons it would need can you think how many to describe all things and that means all things worthwhile the things of God to know they are realities in our soul's experience and all to be known by a sinner born again he that overcometh shall inherit all things it might be there is a reference to that word of the apostle

[41:50] Paul that he penned to the church at Corinth long ago but there is another side to it also when the apostle Paul said all things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Kephas God sends his servants puts them on Zion's walls to preach the gospel to you wherever he ordains whether Paul or Apollos or Kephas the gospel is just preached that you should be encouraged to hope in God whether Paul or Apollos or Kephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours and you are Christ and Christ is God you think on that when you get home you read it and pray over it and ask God to give you a living interest in it make it over to you make you the character in the text he that overcometh what does it mean all things one thing it means is that you will inherit hope in God good hope through grace what you sing about you need to think about it some of you especially as you are now in life's evening time when the soul to march prepares good hope sends out her fervent prayers and dies in peace with God all things and that is what he that overcometh will inherit hope in

[43:46] God hope as an anchor of the soul sure and steadfast entering into that which is within the veil some religion that has come down from heaven to take the poor sinner born again to heaven much might be said along that line of thought he that overcometh shall inherit all things and one of these things will be besides good hope through grace one thing will be a righteousness wherein to appear before God and be made meet for the inheritance of the saints in life another thing beyond words to describe will be forgiveness of sins through this man there is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins he that overcometh shall inherit all things and there is that sweet mercy to be known thy sins be forgiven thee and you say forgiveness is a joyful sound to malefactors doomed to die oh may this bliss in me be found may I redeem in grace in joy another thing amongst these all things will be grace to help in time of need and what grace it will be my grace is sufficient for thee you will never have any surplus grace but

[45:44] God has guaranteed grace all sufficient grace to live grace to die he that overcometh shall inherit all things and look you whatever day of trouble dawns in your life amongst these all things will be a deliverance therein and in that deliverance a way mark set up a high heap raised and a sweet realization that the Lord is good a stronghold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him and amongst these all things will be the peace of God which passes all understanding possessing our hearts and minds and that will enable you to feel when all around my soul gives way he then is all my help my stay when he give it quietness who then can make trouble it is a wonderful feeling to possess when your circumstances are as trying as they can be and yet to have peace within peace on earth and mercy mild

[47:21] God and sinners reconciled all peace and it means this all providential good I will make all my goodness to pass before this