This little heart -to -heart talk may change
your way of thinking, living, experience, everything
completely. I mean just exactly that. You may
have felt that you were living a victorious Christian
life and yet it was only a matter of you using
your own willpower. Restraining yourself in not
doing the things that you really wanted to do.
It's restraint on your part. You're trying to
exercise your own willpower. The Bible teaches
that there is a place where literally Jesus takes
the want to out of your heart, the want to do
wrong things, as long as you want to do things
that are wrong, as long as you want to sin, then,
my friend, that miracle has not yet happened
within. And the miracle has got to happen within.
I told you in our last little heart -to -heart
talk that our Lord wishes us, it's his plan,
that his children should be happy, joyful, always,
everywhere, under all circumstances. And this
life of victory is a life of trust. And that's
a kind of a life that glorifies the Lord Jesus
Christ. Mm -hmm. But there are a lot of folk
who are being kidded by the devil. The devil
does all he can to entice us to accept a counterfeit
victory. If you analyze it, you don't have victory
at all. You are just using restraint. And in
using restraint, you find yourself a very miserable
person. Aren't we the happy? No. Many Christians
pride themselves on the fact that they exercise
such self -control over everything, their temper,
their meanness, that none of these things ever
gets the better of them. Mm -hmm. You know...
No doubt most of our listeners have heard the
story of the old Quaker lady who apparently never
lost her temper. Never. Oh, I have visualized
her more than once. Can't you see her? Under
the most trying circumstances, she always remained
unruffled. Oh, she was so even in her temperament
and her disposition. No matter what happened,
she remained absolutely unruffled. Then one day,
a very close friend complimented her on this
and said to her, I can't for the life of me understand
how you always keep so delightfully sweet. How
in the world do you do it? If the things happened
to me which happened to you, believe me, I'd
just boil with rage. But you never do. And the
dear old Quaker lady quietly replied, Well, perhaps
I do not boil over, my dear. But thou dost not
know what boiling is going on on the inside of
me. Ha ha. That's what I'm trying to tell you.
That is not victory. There is no victory in keeping
our sinful feelings from expressing themselves.
If they're there, if you're still boiling on
the inside, and you're trying to keep from showing
it, that's not victory. The miracle has not happened
on the inside of you. You're just using restraint.
You're just using willpower. And a sinner can
use willpower. Why, I know some people who have
never been born again who can control their feelings.
They have absolute control over their feelings.
They exercise their own willpower over their
feelings. That's not spiritual victory. Mm -hmm.
There's no victory in keeping our sinful feelings
from expressing themselves. We may do that simply
because we're ashamed to let others know how
sinful we really are. Moreover, it does not require
the grace of God to enable a man to hide his
temper. Many a sales clerk... God knows it takes
patience to deal with the public. I feel sorry
for any person who is a sales clerk behind a
counter. Oh, God bless them. These poor women
in the notion department. These poor women in
yardage. I stood there and watched them. Oh,
and you know good and well that on the inside
of them, they could explode sometime. If they
could only give vent to what they are really
feeling. But the only reason they don't give
vent to what they really feel on the inside is
because they know good and well they'll lose
their job. That's right. Sure. A businessman...
will do the very same thing just to get an order.
A salesman will take a lot of gaff. A salesman
will take an awful lot from a client. He feels
like killing him. He could just clobber him all
over the place. But he doesn't do it. He uses
restraint. He uses willpower because he's after
an order. Mm -hmm. A gentleman will do it to
avoid bad form. A society lady does it for social
reasons. But this is not a victorious life. All
these things are very well so far as they go,
but they don't go far enough. There is a place
where literally we become a new person in Christ
Jesus, where the miracle begins on the inside
of us, where it is as natural to be sweet, as
natural to be patient, as natural to be forgiving,
as natural to be happy. As it is to breathe.
That is real victory. And only the Lord Jesus
Christ can give that kind of victory. Someone
tells the story of a lady missionary who surrendered
everything to Christ but had never looked to
him for complete victory. Imagine a missionary
on the mission field. She felt she had made the
full surrender, and she had made the full surrender
to the extent that she was even willing to give
her life to go on the mission field. But when
it came to this thing of complete victory, she
found her temper was not improved by the tropics.
Oh, sure. Mm -hmm. You go out and live under
certain circumstances, certain environments.
She was pretty good until she got out in the
tropics. And she was much distressed about her
failures and her struggles. She tried in vain
to counter her temper. However, a friend showed
her that there was through simple faith in Christ.
And she claimed it as a gift from God. And so
writing to this friend sometime afterward, she
told her the wonderful thing that had happened
to her in the spiritual life. And I quote, she
wrote, I wanted to write to you at first, but
I was afraid my wonderful victory would not last.
But it has lasted. Do you know that for three
months, not only have I not once slammed the
door in the face of any of those stupid Indian
servants that used to get on my nerves, but I
have not even wanted to. Not once. Now that,
my friend, is the victory. Mm -hmm. Those were
her own words. Now that's something. That's real
victory. But I have not even wanted to, she said.
Not once. I'd like to recognize such a thing
as a miracle. No good resolutions, no willpower
can alter our likes and our dislikes. Only God
can. Let's face this thing of likes and dislikes.
In the natural, you cannot control your likes
and your dislikes. In the natural, there's some
folk you absolutely cannot force yourself to
like. You can't do it. Only God can change that.
He can take away from us all desire to do sinful
things. All right, now follow me. Bad temper
is not the only sin of Christian people, but
many Christians have the sweetest dispositions.
The best test of all is the matter of love. Do
we love our enemies? Those who despitefully use
us or persecute us? Do we still love them? Oh,
it's easy to love the lovely. Some folks are
the easiest things in the world to love. But
do we love our enemies? If you want him to love
you, if you really want him to love you, you're
going to have to, first of all, show him you
love him. We usually kind of hesitate to see
whether the other person is going to like us
or not. before we trust our love for him. You
know, it's kind of like that. Oh, it's easy to
love somebody when you know they're crazy about
you. But when somebody says, isn't she the worst
thing? I can't stand her. I can't stand her voice.
I don't like anything about her. Her personality
annoys me. Knowing that that person feels that
way about you, can you still love them? Now,
that takes a miracle. That takes the grace of
God. But it's possible. Uh -huh. And it's got
to be spontaneous. It isn't forcing yourself.
It's spontaneous. Mm -hmm. Oh, I know. It's in
the small things that we're tested. It's in the
small matters that I think that we're tested
most. How often we hear Ernest Christian saying,
well... I simply cannot love the unlovable. No.
It's impossible for human love to do this. We
cannot make ourselves love another. No judge
in anybody's court can make a man love his wife
when he doesn't. No court can force A woman to
love her husband when she doesn't. No law in
the land can make men love each other when they
don't. You can't do it. We cannot make ourselves
love another. Human love is kindled only by what
it... thinks is lovable. The love of God, Christ's
love, embraces all and sees everyone to be lovable.
I know that I'm talking about something that
seems absolutely impossible, so far -fetched
in the minds of thousands and thousands of people,
but I am talking about something that's real,
that the Bible teaches, and it's there. When
Christ dwells richly in our hearts, we shall
love even our enemies. There is victory when
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts
to the expulsion of all unlove. Then and then
only. There we have a definition of real victory.
No. We can legislate all we want to. We can pass
laws all we want to. We can use force and might
all we want to. But you'll never make one man
love another, one race love another, one people
love another, unless it's in the heart. And God
and God alone can put that love there. And when
he puts it in our hearts, it's the greatest thing
that can happen to us. And that's the miracle
that we need in the world today. The greatest
power in the world today is not force, my friend,
but the greatest... power in the world today.
And the only thing that will save this civilization
is love, the love of Jesus Christ our Lord. God
bless you.