VICTORY

^[p. 111] VICTORY

1 Corinthians 15:57; 1 John 5:4, 5, Habakkuk 3:17 - 19; Judges 4:4 - 6

I have before me, dear brethren, to speak about victory, and you will observe in the first passage read that God gives it to us, the ‘us’ obviously having reference to those having faith, for spiritual things are given only to such. God is bountiful in material things and provides for all, even although there may not be faith, for He has never left Himself without witness among men, giving rain, as we are told, and fruitful seasons, filling men’s hearts with food and gladness. Indeed, as the passage goes on to say: “In him we (meaning all mankind) live, and move, and have our being”, Acts 17:28. But when it comes to spiritual things the dispensation of God is said to be in faith. The gospel is addressed to those who have faith, as it is said, on the principle of faith to faith; it is an administration. The Lord Jesus Christ, ere going up to heaven, after He rose from the dead, moved in and out amongst His people for forty days, and in that way would impress them with what is spiritual, so that on going on high, being made both Lord and Christ, He administered what was spiritual. And so Peter says, referring to the gift of the Spirit which was there to be observed: “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear”, Acts 2:33. But He shed Him forth upon those who had faith. He, as shed forth thus, was available to man, but only on the principle of faith. So that what God gives spiritually, as I said, has reference to those who have faith, and when the apostle here says, “Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory”, the “us” refers to those who have faith. As having faith we believe what is presented to us on the principle of faith. And so, in this chapter, the apostle says at the outset that the gospel which he preached to the Corinthians was that “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures”. 1 Corinthians 15:4 These facts were presented to them on the principle of faith, and having received them (if they did, indeed) they came within the ‘us’, to whom God is pleased to give the victory. And, I may add, so that there may be no misunderstanding as to what this victory implies, that it does not refer to any material success or prosperity in this world. It refers to what the chapter speaks of; it refers to resurrection, and you will observe that he does not say, ‘He shall give it to us’, but He “giveth us the victory”. In other words it is a present thing, which God intends should be by faith in the possession of our souls: He gives it to us, and He gives it to us through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, the Lord, as risen, remained with His own forty days before He ascended, and, as you will remember, He appeared, according to this chapter, on six different occasions; and I submit to you that on each of these occasions there would be conveyed the sense of victory. First, He appeared to Cephas. In the gospel of Luke we are told He appeared to Simon, doubtless to reassure the heart of His erring disciple, but the Spirit of God has not that in view in this passage, and so He mentions Simon’s spiritual name. We have to understand what it is, beloved, to have spiritual names, because it is first that which is natural and afterwards that which is spiritual. We have to understand how we come under the eye of the Lord, the last Adam who is a quickening Spirit. If He has to do with us He quickens us; He quickens us in relation to His own perfect wisdom as to the ^[p. 113] place we are to occupy in that spiritual world which He came to effectuate. So that Simon is referred to here according to his spiritual name. This quickening involves certain traits which no one else has. Each one differs, as this passage tells us: “Star differs from star in glory”. 1 Corinthians 15:41 Each one has his own living characteristics, spiritual characteristics, and, as all come under the eye of the last Adam, He sees these and names the person accordingly. We shall all appear, therefore, in the spiritual realm according to the names which the last Adam confers. And so, as He appears to Cephas, there would be in the heart of Cephas a sense of victory. He would be stimulated in the sense of victory as to what he was and the place he was to occupy in the divine structure, for his name signifies ‘a stone’.

And then He appears to the twelve, for they were to administer. There was to be here an administrative company appointed by the Lord, and they had been appointed, and as appointed He appears to them. The appearance would convey to them a sense of victory, for the One whom they were to represent in their administration was Himself supremely victorious; He was out of death. Their administration should be not of material things, but spiritual things, and they would be impressed by the appearance of Christ to them as the twelve, with the sense of victory: that they had to do with a spiritual Person. One who had been into death, and was now out of it. They would be impressed with victory, and would carry on the administration in the sense of victory; they would be above the least taint of corruption. We know how administrators after the flesh are exposed to corruption, but these would be set up in their souls in complete superiority in the sense of victory that the Lord Jesus Christ would accord to them as appearing to them.

Then it is said that He appeared to above five ^[p. 114] hundred brethren at once; and here again there would be the conveyance to their souls of victory, for how should we maintain the truth involved in the term ‘brethren’, except as in victory? We should soon drop to the level of current religion around us unless we are in the sense of victory. It was as risen from the dead that the Lord Jesus Christ sent the message to His brethren. He says, “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God”, John 20: 17. “I ascend”, He says, and how that would elevate their hearts far above this world, and the earth, and even the garden in which Magdalene had met Him. They were to be linked up with Him as ascended into heaven. He came in afterwards — on what particular date I cannot tell — but there were five hundred of them together at the one time — a remarkable occasion — and He appeared to them. Some of them, says the apostle, remained until that day. How those who remained, as moving about among the later converts would convey to those converts the dignity of ‘brethren’! The term has been dragged down in our own times to the current religions in the world, brethren being classified among all the religions of town or country; but it was never so intended. The Lord’s thought was that it should be elevated — that we should remain in obscurity outside the range of man’s cognisance. And so, these five hundred, as they moved about among the later converts, would impress upon them the spiritual dignity involved in the term ‘brethren’.

And then He appeared to James, it says. We have in one instance His appearing to five hundred at once, and then again to one man. He would convey to James the sense of victory. Like some of David’s mighty men of old, he doubtless had to confront many at one time, but God would give him the victory. I have no doubt that we should read the history of David’s men in the light of this, for, as the Lord would appear to an individual, He would convey to him that one man could chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight; as Samson says, “With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men”, Judges 15:16. A man who has had an appearing from the Lord is fortified in his soul with a sense of victory. It was not for Himself alone that He won the victory; that victory is to pervade every one of us! We are to be set up here in the sense of it.

Then He appeared to “all the apostles”, as if to suggest to us that, if the authority of the Lord be called to question — as, alas, it is — the sense of victory which He conveys to those who represent Him in the world enables them to maintain it. To put it in simple language: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me”, John 14:21. You maintain the will of God in your own path, and, as far as you can, in the meeting in which you are, at all costs. Not one iota of divine authority must be surrendered. His appearing to all the apostles has relation to His authority. They represented Him. His presence would impress them in this connection. They would be reminded of the spirit in which His authority should be maintained.

Paul said He appeared unto all these; then he adds, “And last of all he was seen of me”, as one, we may say, who was intended to be a personal representative of His in this world; one who loved the Lord in a peculiar way. He says, “He loved me, and gave himself for me”. Galatians 2:20 Paul loved the assembly, too, as he says, I will “fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church”, Colossians 1:24. How the beloved apostle Paul would be impressed with the victory of Christ as He appeared to him!

Well now, having said so much, I turn to the passage in John’s epistle, because it shows you how we come into this. First he says, “All that has been begotten of God gets the victory over the world” — nothing else! You may study the Scriptures, and the writings that bear on the Scriptures, and acquire knowledge and ability to speak, but all these suffice not for the victory over the world. It is all that is begotten of God that gets the victory. And then again, he says, “This is the victory which has gotten the victory over the world, our faith”. This is not only faith in your soul; it includes, I think, the system of truth unfolded in the Lord Jesus Christ — the whole of it — our faith. On every hand the truth is being given up and abandoned; who are abandoning it? Those who are not born of God, for those who are born of God get the victory, and they hold the truth. Later on we are told “the Spirit is the truth”. Christ is the truth — “I am the way, the truth, and the life”. John 14:6 That is objective. He presents the whole truth of God objectively, but in the epistle the Spirit is the truth, suggesting that the Holy Spirit down here, in the believers, maintains the truth in complete correspondence with Christ in heaven; an immense thought! Can it ever fall to the ground? Never! “This is the victory which has gotten the victory over the world, our faith”. It was held in the souls of believers. The truth was never intended to be maintained by catechism or ‘articles of religion’. That cannot be called faith. The word suggests that things were held livingly in men’s souls, and by the Spirit the truth was held in all its parts, as John wrote. And it was supremely above the world; it brought down the world, as at Ephesus; the books were burned.

I wish to convey to the young ones here what an immense thing we have, as we lay hold of the truth by the Spirit. “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” I have already anticipated this: “Our faith” involves every christian — the unity of the faith — and wherever it is held in faith — that is, livingly, in a man’s soul — there is victory. But then there is the individual thought: “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” The word ‘overcometh’ here is victory; “he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God” has it.

I commend, dear brethren, the importance of believing that Jesus is the Son of God. John presents Him in his gospel, and Paul preached Him as the Son of God. According to the Scriptures Paul was the first to preach that Jesus was the Son of God; you can understand it, for he had already the appearing. “Last of all … he appeared to me”, 1 Corinthians 15:8 Paul said. “God”, he says, “was pleased to reveal his Son in me, that I may announce him as glad tidings among the nations”, Galatians 1:16. And so the preaching that has come to us gentiles is that; the preaching of the Son of God.

As it is individual here one would raise the question with everyone present — the question the Lord raised with the man that had been blind: “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” John 9:35 You see, John contemplates in his gospel that there are believers, and believers. He contemplates that many should come under the head of believers, or disciples, and yet not be believers in the Son of God. Indeed, the man in John 9 had already been a believer. He had witnessed for Christ, and, on account of his witness, had been cast out of the synagogue, and yet the Lord raises the question: “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” You see there is a point we have to reach experimentally, when we believe on the Son of God. And so the man says to the Lord, “Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?” The Lord replies, “Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee”, and he says, “Lord, I believe”. John 9:36 - 38 He is already outside the world, cast out; but I doubt that he had yet overcome it. The religious world had taken the initiative, and cast him out, but he would meet the world in other forms later, and he needed preparation for this. So the Lord finds him, and he believes on the Son of God. What does that mean? — another world; the light of the Son of God in another world gives me the victory over the present one. So I would say to the young ones here, to consider what you have come into as having believed on Christ. It means another world: a world the Son of God has set up, and you have part in it; it is all before you. He says, “me and thee”, and He would convey to your soul that it is just Himself and yourself; that is, He links you up with Himself, and you are His for ever. And the world? You disdain it! What has it got for you? Nothing! Paul said the world was crucified unto him, and he unto the world. He says, “God forbid that I should boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world”, Galatians 6: 14.

Now, I just wanted to point out in the two passages I read in the Old Testament how that the Old Testament confirms, and, indeed, enlarges on the New. It gives us illustrations, and so, in Habakkuk, you have a victor. If you go through his prophecy, you will see, at one time he was very despondent; things were not going well, and he is an example of most of us. We all have our despondent times, up to a point. I often think that the journey of young christians is, so to speak, undulating — up and down — and so it was with Habakkuk, until he arrived at the apprehension of what he speaks of: high places. He begins with variable notes, but he ends with a stringed instrument; I think it is 1 Corinthians 15. The choir, I think, is in view of these chapters,

^[p. 119] beginning with the tenth, and when you come to the great truth of resurrection the strings are tightened up, the flesh is disallowed, and you apprehend the Man out of death; you are in victory. And so Habakkuk says, “To the chief Musician. On my stringed instruments”. Whatever happened to the vines, or to the figs, or to the herds, or to the flocks, affected him not now. His business affairs might go against him, his family affairs, or what not, but now he would rejoice — “I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation”. What is proposed in the gospel is outside of all these material things, and, as apprehended, makes you independent of them. Not that you do not feel things, but you are not dragged down by them; you walk in your high places. You see it is when God gives you the victory, and you are in it consciously, that the high places are yours. The Lord Jesus walked on the high places for forty days before He ascended so that His own might see what victory He had gained. The world saw Him not — it was outside of this world — but His disciples saw Him; He showed Himself unto them alive. He walked on His high places, but now the believer walks on his. He walks independently of adverse circumstances, as in the light of victory, in the light of Christ risen from the dead. God gives you “hind’s feet”; you are above the pressure of this world, and you walk on the high places, and God gets His portion from you. I would that every one of us could use this possessive case, as indicating that we have entered on the high places trodden by the Lord Jesus Christ during those forty days. As the Lord took Peter by the hand, so He would take every one of us, so that we might walk with Him on our high places.

In Deborah there is an instance of one who has the victory in its bearing on the testimony here, because, after all, that is what God has in view in ^[p. 120] leaving us down here. He could easily take us to heaven, but His thought is to set us up in complete independence of this world on our high places, so that we might be here in superiority to the world, and to present the gospel, the testimony to it. It is only in the good of the thing that I can commend it to others; it is not a system of doctrines or articles; it is a thing I have got. I am walking on my high places, and can impress others that the thing is worth having.

Well, now, Deborah judged Israel in those days, and they were dark days. She says, “The roads were unused, and the travellers on highways went by crooked paths. The villages ceased in Israel, ceased until that I Deborah arose”, Judges 5: 6,7. But how did she arise? “She dwelt under the palm — tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel, in mount Ephraim”. You see, she had a palm — tree — “the palm — tree of Deborah” — it was hers, the token of personal victory. How can I be a judge of any, unless I am personally victorious? How can I influence others aright, unless I am spiritually victorious? Deborah was victorious, as she dwelt under her own palm — tree. As the Israelites came to her for judgment, they would be impressed with that well — known symbol of victory. They did not need to carry a bribe with them to obtain her favour, as she needed no bribe; you could not corrupt her, for she was beyond it. She dwelt under her own palm tree, between Ramah and Bethel. You see, she is in good surroundings, with her own palm tree over her. And so any one of us who is in these circumstances can influence the people of God aright.

They come up to Deborah for judgment. And so one who is personally victorious is sure to have a place among the people of God. They respect you, and come to you. What an advantage to come to one who is personally victorious! What an advantage ^[p. 121] to the saints to have one who lives near to God, and to whom they can come for advice! It is on this ground that eldership stands. How can one rule in the house of God unless he rules himself and his own house. As he rules himself and his own house, he is sitting under the palm tree of spiritual victory; he is beyond personal considerations, and is thinking of the welfare of the saints — only that — and the saints know it, and they come to him.

So they come to Deborah, and she sends for Barak, and says, “Hath not Jehovah ... commanded?” I only want to say that you see that one who is personally victorious is now concerned about the will of God. It is not a question of my will, or my judgment, although the saints respect it, as they did Deborah’s, but her word to Barak was this: “Hath not Jehovah … commanded?” Victory in this sense is always marked by respect for the Lord’s commandments, and that is what an elder would insist on, and what is of most importance to be insisted upon; for, everywhere, men are asserting their own wills, whereas one that is victorious spiritually considers for God. As the Lord said, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me”, John 14: 21. And again: “Hereby know we that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments”, 1 John 5: 2. The truly victorious person insists on the Lord’s commandments.

Well, dear brethren, that is what I had on my mind tonight, and I hope the Lord will bring the thought home to each of us. He intends that we should each be in victory, as otherwise we shall not be available in the testimony.

I believe He is giving victory; I believe that God is graciously giving victory to the assembly, maybe in a small way outwardly, but, nevertheless, really, as in the case of Samson. There was not very much to honour Samson in his death, but he slew ^[p. 122] more in his death than in his life. He had his greatest victory in the end; what was the secret of it? His hair had begun to grow; it had been shaven, but now there was evidence of life — thus the victory at the end.