Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 105, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 May 1918 — The Safety of the Christian [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Safety of the Christian

By REV. B. B. SUTCLIFFE

Extension Department , Moody Bible Institute, Chicago

TEXT—When I cry unto thee then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; tor God Is for me.—Ps. 56:9. David* the sweet singer of Israel, has set down for us in the expression

of his own emotions and experiences the heart of the believer’s comfort andassur-' ance. The Psalms contain the voice of the spiritual life of one who holds communion with God in the midst of a world opposed to him. In the above text there is much of comfort and assurance for the one beset by the foes of righteousness and truth.

The Need of Safety. This psalm declares in the second verse “they be many that fight against me” and this is echoed by every Christian’s heart The world with its infinite variety of subtle temptations, adding huge stores of fuel to the pride of life, appealing in such crafty ways of the Christian’s natural self; the flesh with its never-ending tug and pull drawing one in multitudinous ways to its desires and the' devil with his unnumbered wiles and devices leading into the avenues which appear so good and even religious, which yet are the paths to\vard death. Numerous indeed are the hosts of enemies. Malignant too these enemies are offering no quarter, showing no mercy but as this psalm says they “would daily swallow me up.” They are as persistent as they are numerous and malignant. There is no respite from their attacks; they are “fighting daily,” continually. Surely there is need of safety for the Christian in the midst of these foes. The Time of Safety. Our text says “when I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back.” In his desire to teach us the Lord seems to permit us to go on-fighting with our own strength, struggling with our weakness, striving to win in the unequal strife until we come one of old to the end of self and self’s power and cry “O wretched man that I am.” But while he permits this, it is only that he may lift us up in victory and makes us superior to all the attacks however bitter and hard pressed they may be. It has been well said that “the end of self is God’s beginning” for “when lam weak then am I strong” Strong no longer in the power of my own resolutions and the force of my will, but strengthened with the might of the God who is omnipotent* When the Christian comes to the end of seif, with his back to the wall and with'a realization of his insufliciency, then he cries to the almighty one and finds swift deliverance from all fils foes. The Certainty of Safety. The psalmist has had sufficient experience to be assured that this is no mere pious and. beautiful thought but out of the furnace of personal history comes the glad confidant ringing cry "this I know.” The Christian need not merely hope for safety with the uncertainty of human hope, but with -the Divine assurance founded on the immutability of the eternal’ power of God. “If God be for us who can be against us,” is the Apostle’s word in Romans 8:31. Beyond peradventure, without the shadow of doubt the Christian jirny know that when he cries unto the Lord, then will his enemies turn back. Not merely because he is a good man, not because he is a special favorite with high heaven, not because he has some special influence with God but because God has said, “I will never leave thee, I will never fail thee." Relying therefore on the omnipotent power and the unbreakable promise of the Almighty God he can say “I know.” The Cause of Safety. The cause or reason of the believer’s safety does not depend on the believer’s own strength nor ability, but in the simple fact that God is for him. God was for him when Christ died for him upon thte cross. The less is always included in the greater and “He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?” Rom. 8:32. God was for the believer when Christ died, he was for the believer when salvation was bestowed, he was for him when he was brought into the - family of God and being now one of the father’s children in Christ, God will be for him in the time of danger to provide safety from all his enemies. Oh, that the children of God might learn to believe “when I cry unto thee then will mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.” ' '