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from faith Unto Faith"—Friday Nights With Fpmans
By Reb. Len G. Broughton
Perhaps a word of explanation just here is nec
essary. These Friday night lectures by Dr. Brough
ton to his large, popular Bible class at the Taber
nacle were so rich and strong, that the stenograph
er’s notes have been worked out and carefully
revised by Dr. Broughton for The Golden Age.
There are sixteen of them, and The Golden Age
will be glad to furnish back numbers to new sub
scribers. It is confidently expected that they will
be eagerly received as they contain the best work
of Dr. Broughton’s life and will greatly aid the
busy Bible student. Editor.
LECTURE 11.
The Life of Victory.
Ch. VIII.
N studying this eighth chapter we must
keep in mind the teaching of the sev
enth. The seventh chapter reveals to
us the average Christian life that we
see lived before us every day. Alas, it
is the life that too many of us are con
tented with. It is the up and down
life. The eighth chapter reveals to us
a better life, and gives to us the one
I
way for living this better life. It is this eighth
chapter that we are to study, and I pray God that
each of us may get the lesson out of it that is most
needed in our own lives.
First, let us see the foundation of the life of
victory.
1. In Christ.
2. For the present.
3. From the heart.
We understand, of course, that there is no life of
victory without a proper foundation. The founda
tion that Paul builds upon here is found in this
first verse. The foundation for the life of victory
is, first of all, in Christ Jesus.
The man or woman who is not rooted in Christ
Jesus need never contemplate living the life of
victory. There is no victory over sin to the man or
woman who is not founded upon Christ, and the
quicker the world learns this fact, the better the
world is going to be. When the world thoroughly
realizes that truth it will cease to depend on refor
mation. It will cease in any sense to hold up to
men. as a hope for a life of victory, the mere re
solve of their hearts to live a better life.
If you will pardon me for speaking out of my
own heart, I want to say that I have of late been
more and more convinced of the folly of attempt
ing to build up this world in righteous living by a
reformatory process. I do not mean that we are
not to be interested in public reforms, but I do
mean to say that these things are to be very inci
dental; that the only thing in this world that can
reform the community and the people is the thing
that is to reform the individual, and that is a life
hid in Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus must be the bed
rock, and if we have not Christ Jesus in our hearts,
and if we are not wholly and completely relying
upon him as our foundation, there is no need that
we should consider further the life of victory, for
there is no life of victory without Jesus Christ, and
then we want to realize that this life of victory is
for the present and not the future simply.
Too many of us have been looking forward to the
time when we would be free, when the dead are to
be judged, then we have in some way trusted that
we shall be set free from all the entanglements of
the flesh and enter upon a life of victory.
The Apostle holds up to us the idea of present
victory, based upon the fact that Jesus Christ is
the foundation. “There is therefore no condemna
tion to them that are in Christ Jesus.” We do not
have to wait until we die to get deliverance. We
do not have to wait until we die to have the yoke
of bondage broken. We do not have to wait until
we die to be delivered from the things that bind and
grind. Thank God, we have the power to get de
liverance now.
In the provision of God deliverance comes with
regeneration. It is a privilege for us to appropriate
The Golden Age for October 10, 1907.
when we will, but so many of us fail to realize the
fact that there is in regeneration complete and per
fect deliverance from the things that bind us to
this earth. It does seem to me that we need to do
more preaching along the line of the fullness of
the provision that God has made for the soul and
the life in the one great work on the cross.
Then too we need to realize that this deliver
ance comes through surrender to the Lord Jesus
Christ for the work of his purifying grace, and
that is clearly seen in this one little word “there
fore.” “There is therefore no condemnation.”
T his word therefore, to be properly understood must
connect the 25th verse of the seventh chapter with
the first verse of the eighth.
Paul closes up the seventh chapter with these
words: “Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall
deliver me out of the body of this death 1 ? I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I my
self with the mind serve the law of God; but with
the flesh the law of sin. Therefore there is now no
coudemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.”
The word “mind” should properly be translated
11 heart. ’ ’
Deliverance from bondage comes by the way of
the heart. We saw in the seventh chapter that
there are two powers at work in the same indi
vidual, the power of the Spirit and the power of
the flesh or the devil. And there is a perpetual
warfare between these two powers, and in that sev
enth chapter we saw that at one time one was on
top and at another time the other was on top.
But the Apostle closes the seventh chapter with
the statement that while this is true, his heart was
set on God, and because his heart was set on God
there is now no condemnation. We can easily de
termine whether or not we are in the attitude of
deliverance. That is, we may not have received the
complete deliverance, but we can at least understand
whether or not we are in the proper attitude to re
ceive the deliverance of God. That attitude is de
termined altogether by our hearts. I know wheth
er or not my heart is stayed upon God. I know'
whether it is my chiefest desire to serve God, and
you know whether or not it is your chiefest desire
to serve God, and if that be true God accepts that
earnest desire of the heart to please Him; He ac
cepts that desire and registers it as a righteous
heart. God gives us deliverance according to the
appropriation we make of the things he has pro
vided for the deliverance.
And so, as we start this eighth chapter let us un
derstand that the whole question of victory is de
pendent first of all, upon the foundation that we
have for it. If Jesus Christ is the foundation up
on which we shall attempt to build, then there is
hope; but if Jesus Christ is not, and we can deter
mine that question by the attitude of our hearts,
then the first thing for us to do is to get in right
relation with God through Jesus Christ. The first
thing to do is to get right with Him, and we get
right with Him only when we get right with Jesus.
Presuming that we are all of us in right relation
with Christ, that He is our foundation, that our
hearts are fixed upon Him, that our chiefest desire
is to serve God, then we are prepared to go further
into the study of the means and method and result
of a life of victory, all of which is told in this
wonderful eighth chapter.
The next thing that the Apostle shows is the
contrast between the life of victoiy and defeat,
and it is very interesting to note the character of
this contrast; the contrast between defeat and vic
toiy; the flesh and the spirit, as he denominates
it.
The first thing you will note is concerning the life
of defeat, or the life of the flesh. What is the life
of the flesh?
1. Mind the things of the flesh.
2. Enmity against God.
3. Not subject to his law.
4. Cannot please God.
What is the character of the life of the flesh, or
the defeated Christian; the man who is today up
and tomorrow down; what is the general drift of
this man’s life? It is that he minds the things of
the flesh. And what do we understand by the
flesh? Here is cne definition: “Self.”
When you have considered self, you have consid
ered the flesh. Anything under the sun that is for
ihc gratification of the self is of the flesh alone.
The man who is a defeated man in his Christian
life is a man wh) lives for the things of the flesh;
he loves the things of the flesh; he is careful
about the things of the flesh; concerned about the
things of the flewh.
Then, in the next place, he is at enmity against
God, because God is against the flesh; God stands
against the flesh life; God is tremendously opposed
to selfishness; there is nothing that he hates more
than selfishnes.
If that*be true Ido not see how God can put
up with the average man and woman in the church,
for it does seem to me that Christian people, of all
people, are the most squeamish about the gratifica
tion of the flesh. I do not know why that is, but
I have thought of it very seriously within the last
few months.
I know men who have never given way to the
flesh until they have been promoted in Christian
service. I have a very distinguished friend, a Pres
byterian. He said to me some time ago, “1 be
lieve that one of the most dangerous things in the
world today, at least in my church, is to elect a
member to a position upon our official board. I
have noticed that the moment we give him a posi
tion upon our official board he begins to retrograde.
He gets sensitive. He gets careful about the things
of the flesh.” That is the truth about it. And I
repeat again, I know nothing that God hates like
He does selfishness. The self centered man is the
man who is at enmity with God, “Not subject to
His law, neither indeed can be.”
A man who minds the things of the flesh cannot
be in right relation to God, for God has put Him
self in the exact opposite position to selfishness.
Everything that God has is at the disposal of the
world. Everything that He ever made He made
for somebody else to enjoy. Everything that God
has is to be given away even to the extent of giving
away His own Son, absolutely turning Him loose to
be loved and sought for and enjoyed by the world.
I hat is how benevolent God is. That is the way
God has put Himself out to bless and honor the
race that He made, and yet, see how different it
is with us.
How many of us are so selfish as to want to en
joy every gopd thing that we can get our hands on
for ourselves. If we build a fine house, we build
it to enjoy it. If we get a new piece of furniture,
it is that we may enjoy it; we never think about
buying it that somebody else may enjoy it. What
ever we get, we get for the gratification and comfort
cf ourselves, and yet we call ourselves Christians,
and sometimes talk about having entered the life
of victory. I am afraid very few of us know any
thing about the life of victory, for there can be no
life of victory until we have come to the place where
we are like God, unselfish in the things we have
given.
No man can live a victorious life until he lives
for the comfort of other people; every possession
of the victorious man is for the comfort of other
people; every dollar of money is for the blessing
cf other people; every talent is for the helping of
other people; and if I know anything about an un
selfish life, it consists in the fact that a man gives
his life for others. Jesus Christ never could have
laid claim to an unselfish life if he had stopped
short of that, and however much we may testify
or lay claims to exalted position in Christ; however
much we may serve or give money:. however loud
we may talk and proclaim—the real test of the life
of victory ,: °s in the extent to which a man gives
what he has for other people.
I think one of the clearest and most blessed exhi
bitions of this unselfish life of victory that I know
anything about is found in a home near Birming
ham, England; the home of the Cadbury s. It Is
a most magnificent palace. I never saw a more
