CHRIST TRIUMPHANT
[p. 124] CHRIST TRIUMPHANT
There are three marks of one who is a triumphant Christian, of one who has learned the triumphant Christ. It is not Christ fighting the battle, or part of the battle, that makes me triumphant. It is a victorious Christ. When you see Him, you see what God has done. When man had ruined himself, God says, “In me is thine help”. (Hosea 13:9)
But before I go on let me say one word on the questioning of the infidel and the caviller, who says that he does not believe the gospel. I say to him, have you anything to put in its place? Have you anything else to give man, for he is ruined? Death stares him In the face, and all the science of man cannot get him out of the fatal snare. Have you anything to put in the place of this which. God proposes to do for the believer in Jesus? — that is, the gospel.
An infidel said to me the other day that he did not believe it. ‘Well’, I said, ‘have you anything to put in its place? Have you any other remedy?’ ‘No’, he said, ‘I have no remedy’. ‘You have no remedy’, I said, ‘and yet you do not believe the only remedy that has been provided!’ The gospel is the only remedy; that is the great thing to arrive at. People may split up Christianity into different sects; but there is no other thing offered by men to meet man’s ruin, but the gospel. It has no rival.
I said to him, ‘I have another question: supposing for a moment it were true, would it suit you to have a triumphant Saviour out of all the ruin and misery into which man has fallen?’ ‘Admirably’, he replied, ‘admirably’. ‘Well’, I said, ‘see where you are! You have no rival scheme in place of this one,
[p. 125] and it is one, you admit yourself, which would suit you admirably; but you meet my appeal by saying you do not believe it! I have a third question to put to you — Did you ever try it? If you heard of a certain cure for a headache, or a toothache do you think it would be a wise thing for you to say, ‘I do not believe in it,’ if you had not some other cure, or if you had never tried it?’ You see man treats the proposal God has made — the most wonderful thing that ever came into the world — in a way that shows you what a set of people cavillers are, and how true Scripture is when it says, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God”. (Psalm 14:1) Man would not treat a common remedy for a common pain in the way he treats the gospel, that relates to his immortal soul. If he said, ‘I did try the cure, but it was no good’, or if he said, ‘I have got a better one’, it would be something; but here he does not say, ‘I have got a better’, but ‘I have not one at all. It would suit me admirably if it were true’. Did you ever try it? ‘Never’. How dare you, then, say you do not believe it? If you had tried it and found it would not do, then you might say something about not believing in it; but until then, you have no right to say you do not believe it.
Take the case of the children of Israel when bitten of the fiery serpents. There they were suffering, and an evangelist of the day goes up to one of his friends or neighbours who had been struck down, and he says to him, ‘Do you see that serpent up there?’ ‘Yes’. ‘Well, God says if you look at that you will be cured’. The man says, ‘I do not see any sense in that; it is unreasonable’. The evangelist replies, ‘I have two reasons why you should try it. The one is that God says it; and the other is that I have looked at it, and I have proved the benefit of it’. That is what makes an evangelist. He has always two reasons: the word - God says so — that is the first [p. 126] witness; the second is, I know it experimentally. Here is a man in the agony of the serpent’s bite; he turns a look up at the brazen serpent, and he is well in a minute! Would all the world convince that man that looking at the serpent had not cured him? Would the man not go to his neighbour and say, ‘Now, neighbour, there is a cure for you. I have got two reasons why you should try it, and ‘In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established’: God has said it! and I have tried it myself, and I am well’. It was a most instantaneous cure. He that looked lived.
Now, having said so much upon this wonderful thing that God proposes, I come to the subject of a triumphant Christ; and the three characteristics of one who has got the triumphant Christ. The Lord has triumphed. I do not say you have triumphed, but I say, “The Lord ... hath triumphed gloriously”. (Exodus 15:1) I put it to any one here, if a dog attacked you, and a friend came to your relief, would you not rather see the man triumphant over the dog, than merely fighting it for you? Would you not like to see him perfectly triumphant? And therefore the Scripture insists upon it, not merely that Christ began the battle, not merely that He went through it, but that He is triumphant. It is a triumphant Christ that is presented to the soul. What did Paul say to the jailer, the poor pagan, when he cried “What must I do to be saved?” Did he tell him Christ began your battle, Christ will go on with your battle, and I hope; Christ will finish it? No he said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”. (Acts 16:30 - 31) No doubt Paul told him more afterwards, but still the thing he first put before him was the object of his faith — that is, the Christ of God.
God has laid help upon one that is mighty. You are ruined — you art bound; and He says, ‘I will restore, I am going to get you out of the house of [p. 127] bondage and out of the fiery furnace. I know your sorrows and your weaknesses; and I am sending My own Son to deliver you — to bring you out of the land of Egypt, and into the land of Canaan’.
Remember the little word of four letters — done. It is not doing, but done. I will tell you how it is done presently, but what I now say is that it is done, for that is the thing you want to know. Is redemption accomplished? It is. I will give you an illustration.
Any child will remember the story of Goliath, how the whole army of Israel were in a terrible fright because of the giant. A stranger stripling, David, comes forward and attacks him. Jonathan, David’s friend, looks on in an anxious state. He sees David deal the giant a blow that fells him to the ground. What is his state then? Hopeful, but not happy. The giant might get up again. But Jonathan sees David take a sword from its sheath and cut off the head of the giant, and then hold it up in his hand. Now, what do you think Jonathan does? He thanks the Lord that it is done.
Do you believe in Christ that way tonight? Have you the simple faith that Jonathan had? Can you say, “I am clear of judgment”, as Jonathan could say he was clear of Goliath? If you can, it is because you see. a triumphant Saviour. It was not that Jonathan did anything himself. All he did, was to stand there and look. That is just what you have to do. “The Lord ... hath triumphed gloriously”. (Exodus 15:1) Jonathan has nothing at all to show for himself. All that he can say is, that he sees David with the head of Goliath in his hand.. Can you say that “Jesus Christ ... hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light?” (2 Timothy 1:10) — that He is triumphant? If so, then you have the true marks of a triumphant one. Then it is that the soul of Jonathan is knit to the soul of David. Up to that he had been thinking [p. 128] of Goliath; and if you are faint believe me, it is because you do not see the triumphant Christ — not David, but one greater than David — because you do not see the ground cleared, and Goliath put out of the way. “Ah! you say, but I am looking to the Saviour”. Yes, I admit you are, but to a Saviour fighting the battle. You do not see a triumphant Saviour. I will show you presently the marks of the soul that has got hold of the triumphant Saviour; but before I do so we will turn to see how Christ fought the battle. See Exodus 12:13 — “And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you”. (Exodus 12:13)
“And the blood shall be to you for a token”. That is the first thing — that the work of Christ meets the poor sinner. The first thing is to learn about the blood. Remember what night it was that is referred to in the verse I have quoted. It was a night of death. There was not a house in Egypt in which there was not one dead. Death was raging from the family of the king to that of the beggar. What a desperate night it was. In that desperate night the people were brought face to face with death. Has your soul ever come in contact with death yet? Some day it must. When I was a very young man — about 17, I suppose, I heard of the cholera being within six miles of me. I was what might be called a religious man then. I used to read the Bible four times a day; but when I heard that the cholera was in the next town to where l was living, I cannot tell you what came over me, but in the long run I was on the floor, and I said to myself — I remember it to this day — ‘What is the matter with me? I am afraid to die’. Did you ever face death? I was not irreligious. It is no common thing for a youth of 17 to read the Bible four times a day, and yet I said, ‘There is death, and l am afraid to die’. People do not sufficiently look at what death is. Death is a terrible thing. Death is an intruder, because it is the wages of sin, and we are all afraid of our wages. How are we to get clear of it? You can get clear of it only by the blood of Jesus.
I put the gospel in the simplest way possible. Do you believe that Julius Caesar was in this world? ‘Yes, you believe that’. Do you believe that Jesus Christ was in the world? ‘Yes’. But there is another question; Do you believe God sent Him to die for your sins? If you do, you are a saved man; for he that believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Many believe that Jesus Christ was on the earth, just as they believe that Julius Caesar was on the earth, or George the Fourth. But do you believe God sent Him? That is the point. What did the man do who got his sight (John 9)? He went to the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation, “Sent;” that is the virtue of it, God sent Christ. Do you believe God sent His Son to die for your sins? If so, you are saved. You may have to learn a great deal more; but you have got that much at any rate. “When I see the blood, I will pass over”. (Exodus 12:13) That was where the Israelites got shelter on that terrible night in Egypt. A lifeboat pushes out from the shore to a man who is drowning. The man sees the lifeboat, and he says, ‘I am saved’. He gets into the boat and is safe. He is not triumphant yet — he has not got ashore yet — but still he is safe; he is in the boat. That is the first thing. I pray that God would not allow a single one in this hall to leave without being able to say, ‘Thank God, I have found shelter. I believe God has sent His Son to die for my sins, I see the Christ of God’.
A person dwelling on the sufferings of Christ may be very pious, and yet not be triumphant. When the drowning man gets into the lifeboat, he does not wish to stay in it because he knows there is still danger, and all the sailors in the world would not [p. 130] persuade him that that was a safe place. When Noah was in the ark, was he not safe? And yet what made him send out the raven? Because he longed to see the dry land; which he did in due time. He was saved, not triumphant, but when he got to the shore, ‘he built an altar;’ and when the sweet smelling savour went up he said, it was as if ‘I was amid the manifest judgment of God. I was saved from it by the ark, and now I am in favour from the altar’. He is triumphant now that he finds he is in favour. You see what God proposes is a perfect thing; and therefore, as Scripture puts it in another place, “We may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world”. (1 John 4:17) That is the language of a triumphant one.
I want, every one who hears me preach to go away with the impression that God’s gospel is a wonderful thing. That I should be, not in heaven, but even in this earth, in the triumph of God’s own Son, who sits at His right hand — was ever anything more marvellous than that!
Look at 1 John 4:17, and see what Scripture says: “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world”. (1 John 4:17) If that is not triumphant, I do not know what is.
Now turn to Exodus 14:13. They came up to the Red Sea, and they were all afraid, and Moses said, “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today; for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more for ever”. (Exodus 14:13) What is the Red Sea to the believer? I have first to learn by the blood of Christ that the judgment of God is met. “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood”. (Romans 3:25) I am sheltered by the blood. But the next thing I learn is that Christ has destroyed all that is against me. He has destroyed the power of [p. 131] death. He entered into death that He might destroy him that had the power of death. He has abolished death. That is the Red Sea — and now I can go through it without fear. Many a believer thinks himself in a hopeful position of soul when he says, ‘I see the way quite clear through death — but I am not over yet’. Then you are only looking at the way. ‘It is a magnificent sight’. Granted, but you are on this side of it. You have to march through it yet. You are just where Jonathan was when he saw Goliath on the ground. You are hopeful — very hopeful, but you never get rest till you see the head in David’s hand. That is triumphant. You may say, ‘Can anything be more grand than to see a way made through the sea?’ True, but there is something grander on the other side. Ah! you reply, but we are not at the other side yet? No, I say, that is perfectly true; but our Saviour is. He is triumphant; and what is the use of His being triumphant for me, if I do not get the good of it? What is the good of a man representing me if I do not get the benefit of what he represents? What I want to know is, whether the work is really done — the work of my redemption. It is done, and therefore, as Moses says, “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord ... for the Egyptians” — (not Egypt but the Egyptians — it is not that I am saved from judgment in Egypt; but when I have learned that Christ is triumphant I am clear of the person who exposes me to the judgment, and that is the Egyptian) — “the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more for ever”. (Exodus 14:13)
I put this solemn truth to every believer in this hall tonight — namely, that I hold that believers are greatly culpable for the infidelity of the present day, because you do not give a good expression of the gospel. You do not insist on the fact that you are put in this glorious position on the earth: You have failings every day, and conflicts, and falls. All this is [p. 132] no doubt true; and you have a giant — sin — to fight against and you may have doubts, about yourself proving triumphant, but believe that Christ is triumphant and your doubts will vanish. Nothing but a realisation of the triumphant, Christ will give you relief. Christ did not triumph for Himself. He triumphed for me; but what was the good of its being done at all if I do not get the benefit of it? What is the good of David killing Goliath, if Jonathan and the army do not get the benefit of it? They did get the benefit of it; and if any one had gone into Jonathan’s tent and said to him, ‘I am afraid that giant is walking about still’, Jonathan would have said, ‘Did you not see his head in David’s hand? Don’t you know he is gone? I did not do it, but David did. Rejoice, therefore, in David’s triumph’. So do you, believers, rejoice in a triumphant Saviour, He has fought, the battle. He has destroyed death; He died and has risen again. He has risen triumphant.
And now we come to look at what are the marks of having a triumphant Saviour, because what God really desires is to get you to know this wonderful thing that He has accomplished for every believer in Christ; that you may sing that song tonight, and say, ‘I have got a wonderful Saviour, a wonderful salvation’. The first mark is, that a new joy is put into your heart — a new song — you have more gladness in your heart than when your corn and your wine increased. What will you sing about? That Christ is fighting the battle? No; but that He is triumphant. Any one not able to sing of a triumphant Saviour has not got the first mark of the man who has found the triumphant Christ. The man who has found that has joy in his heart, and he will go forth singing. Lt was the chorus, too, that Moses dwelt upon, “The: Lord ... .hath triumphed gloriously”. (Exodus 15:21) I do press this upon you. You say, ‘How [p. 133] do I know that Christ has triumphed, and that He is up there?’ It is not very easy to explain it. If you saw a ladder come down from heaven to earth, you would say, ‘There is a ladder and I can go up and find out all things that are there.’ Jacob saw a ladder come out of heaven. We have a greater ladder — the Holy Spirit. Christ has done the greatest thing for you, and He has given you the greatest gift. He not only wrought out salvation for you; but He also sends you the Holy Spirit. Christ says that He was exalted to God’s right hand, that His people might receive the Holy Spirit.
Everyone is clear about the fact that Christ has done the greatest thing for us; but I say that if He had not sent down the Holy Spirit, His work would have been vain. The Holy Spirit comes down to tell you that Christ has triumphed. Jonathan said, ‘I saw David fight and kill Goliath’. I see Christ triumphant over my foe; and I know what He has done through the teaching of the Holy Spirit.
Christ went down into the depths to get me out of the ruin, wretchedness, and misery into which sin had brought me. That, however, is not enough for me. When He came out He said: ‘I will send you something to show that the Egyptians you saw today you will see no more forever: I will send down the Holy Spirit for you’. That is what He meant when He said to the woman of Samaria — the poor sinner, “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst”. (John 4:14) That is what makes a song spring up in the believer’s heart. The Holy Spirit puts a new song into your mouth. “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit”. (Romans 14:17) Not only did my Saviour go down into the depths, but He came out again and I am in Him for ever. How do I know this? I have got the greatest thing God [p. 134] ever gave to anybody — the whole world would not be equal, to it — the Holy Spirit dwelling in my heart for ever. “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”. (John 4:14) The Saviour who sends the Holy Spirit to me is the same One who died for me. He does the two things. He completes the work, and He makes a song spring up in my heart. He says, ‘I will send down the Spirit, and I will connect you with my accomplished work’. When He was exalted to God’s right hand. He sent forth this “which ye, now see and hear”. That is how you can now sing a new song. How can you sing it otherwise? How do l know the work is done? Because I have got that message sent down — the Holy Spirit has come down to show that the work of the Lord Jesus Christ is accomplished. What is the proof that Christ is glorified.? The Holy Spirit has come. Therefore I can sing. That is the first mark of a triumphant Christian, and l am dwelling long upon it. “The Lord ... hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea”. (Exodus 15:21) Do you ever get gloomy? Sometimes, some one says. I will tell you a fine cure for it. Were you ever out at night? What were you looking for — the cloud? No, you say, I was looking for the moon. So I would say to the gloomy believer, look for Christ. He is the triumphant One. Look for the Advocate between you and God. “The Lord ... hath triumphed gloriously”. That; is the first mark. “He hath put a new song in my mouth”, (Psalm 40:3) He has “put gladness in my heart”.. “A cheerful heart is a continual, feast”. (Proverbs 15:15) It is not that my circumstances are better, but I have perfect gladness in the Lord. No more gloominess; no more complainings; no more murmurings; no more discontent; no more dissatisfaction with God’s arrangements for you. Now you say, I have got the greatest thing He can give me. -I have not only got relief. It is not that my outward [p. 135] circumstances are better. I am the same as ever, but I have got a new thing which is in me a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
The second mark of a triumphant christian is that he is occupied with the Lord. When Jonathan stripped himself and put his sword and bow, and girdle on David, he was thinking of David and not of Goliath. So you read in the second verse of the fifteenth chapter of Exodus: “The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation”. (Exodus 15:2) I am thinking of God, not of the giant, now. I have got a new interest. I am at peace with God, and I am exultant. The triumphant Christian says: “I do not mind what other people say, I will make much of my Saviour. He shall have the chief place in my heart”.
The third mark is, that I am going to God’s place. “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established” (Exodus 15:17) We are going to His place; but before we go to His place, we want Him to have a place where we are. “I will prepare Him an habitation”. (Exodus 15:2) Thus David says, “I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob”. (Psalm 132:4 - 5)
These are the three marks; the first is the one I have dwelt on most, because if you have got it, you are sure to possess the others. The first is that my heart is exulting in the triumphant Saviour. The work is done. God has done it, and I am looking at the triumphant Christ. Therefore it is not a question of looking at death. There is no death to the believer; there is no sin. You pass out of these through Christ. Thus the aged Simeon says: “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy [p. 136] word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation”. (Luke 2:29 - 30) Stephen, saw the Lord up there, and he is happy to go. But Paul is longing “to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better”. (Philippians 1:23) The first was ready to go, the second happy to go, the third longing to go. The Lord grant that you may all be in this condition. Do not turn away from such great salvation. Let not one of you be satisfied with anything but a triumphant Saviour. Then a better, testimony would go abroad from you. What was it that arrested the elder brother of the prodigal when he approached his father’s house.? It was, the sound of music, and dancing. And we should wake up many a soul if we had more of the expression of those, who have got the greatest thing that God can give. I have the favour of God. I have the greatest mark of it which God can show me. I have the Holy Spirit. The Lord give you to see where Christ is. That is the thing. Look to Christ, and to Him alone. When the jailer, in his alarm, asked Paul, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul’s reply was, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”. (Acts 16:30 - 31) So I say to you: Is there any one in this hall who will go away tonight, saying; “I despise, God’s offer”. What a terrible thing. The Lord grant, in His infinite mercy, that His word may be effectual in delivering you all out of the condition of misery, in to which you have been brought by sin!