Romans 12

Romans 12:21

THE WAY TO WIN Romans 12:21THIS twelfth chapter of Romans is one of the most interesting in the world. It is an appeal for a higher life. Duty to God and sacrifice of self in spiritual mindedness, in humble judgment of one’s own powers, and in seeking to know one’s place in all the service of the Most High, is the general theme. Under this, one’s obligation to his fellows is to give them affection, to deal with them honestly, to administer to the comfort of the needy, to bear with the weak, to sorrow with the sorrowful, and to joy with the joyful.Duty to one’s self, the holding of the reins of passion in overcoming all meanness even when injured and wronged, is clearly set forth.The Apostle knew from experience, as well as by the Holy Ghost, how difficult it is to return good for evil, and so wrote,“If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good”. (Romans 12:20-21). We are in need of such counsel. One of the hard things of this life is to treat those who wrong us half right.The fact that God said, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord”, is easily forgotten when we are injured, and we are seeking to get our rights with a high hand. Sorry way! This Scripture sets forth the only successful means of coping with the wrong. Overcome it with good!THE GOOD IS ONLY BY CHOICE As a member of a Tennyson Club I came to delight in the beauty and magic of that author’s poems; and, as with most people, “In Memoriam” was my favorite. But I trust I was not blind to its theological falsehoods.“Oh, yet we trust that somehow good Will be the final goal of ill, To pangs of nature, sins of will, Defects of doubt, and taints of blood. “That nothing walks with aimless feet; That not one life shall be destroy’d, Or cast as rubbish to the void, When God hath made the pile complete.

“Behold we know not anything; I can but trust that good shall fall At last—far off—at last, to all, And every winter change to spring.” That is the religious hope of not a few who are living in daily indifference to present good, and refusing to choose the better.When Micawber puts Tennyson’s thought into plain speech, people laugh to scorn such a notion, and know that his thriftlessness and indolence will never result in good. But the same people turn about and adopt from Tennyson as the hope of eternity that which they ridicule in Dickens as the cheat of time.No man will ever be good who does not choose to be. No man will ever sow good seed who does not choose to do so.And this choice is personal. There are other things that cannot be done by proxy beside being born, falling in love, marrying, dying, and such like. Choice is one of them. Sometimes we almost wish that others could choose for us.

When we meet a pale-faced woman on the streets, leading her half-clad, half-starved child toward the illegal saloon whence she hopes to persuade the brutalized husband home, we wish that she could make choice for him. When we see a mother whose sweet face has sad lines, put there by the sins of a wayward son, we wish that she could choose life’s path for him.

When we meet a wife whose heart loves the Lord, but whose husband has no sympathy with Christ, we wish that she could choose for him, that in Christ they might be one. But alas for our desire!The natural law is no doubt as wise as immutable —every man must make choice for himself. You remember Joshua’s words to Israel in the hour of their vacillation, when, having set before them the end of Satan’s service, and the reasons why God should be obeyed, he said, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve; * * but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).You remember how Moses, in the thirtieth chapter of Deuteronomy, says to this same people, “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life”. The prodigal son, sitting in the solitude of his rags and ruin, saw that he must choose the better course, or perish, and in the poor strength of his remaining manhood, he made it and was saved. It is the decision of a lifetime. Will you make it?The time allotted for this choice is limited: not so much by the fact that God’s “Spirit shall not always strive with man”, as by the circumstances of life itself.

God’s Spirit is slow to give up a soul to Satan. The danger of grieving Him away is not the greatest danger.Some years since the Chicago papers told the story of a breach of promise suit.

On account of the death of a brother, a young woman sought to defer her wedding. The prospective groom grew angry and brought suit for breach of promise. God’s Holy Ghost loves the soul too dearly to act in such petulance, or to forsake it for small reason. As long as there is the slightest hope, that Spirit will continue to plead His love.There are circles in life over which one steps at his peril.There is the circle of sanity. Years since, in New Albany, Indiana, I pled with a man to accept Christ as his Saviour, and he indifferently replied, “I mean to, but a few minutes at the last is sufficient to do that.” A short time elapsed, and he was hopelessly insane, and his day of grace was forever gone.There is the circle of consciousness. My good but unsaved friend was well in the morning, but at noon-day he was unconscious, and before the evening he was gone.Then there is the circle of life itself.

Who can tell how near to it he stands? Once over the line, there is no return.

You doubtless remember your history at the point where Pompilius was sent by the Roman senate to order Antiochus to withdraw his army from Egypt. When the letter was delivered, Antiochus kindly smiled and said, “I will consider it and give my reply at my leisure”. Then Pompilius took his sword and drew about him in the sand a circle and said to the invader, “You will give your answer before you cross that line.” And Antiochus well knew the power of Rome and speedily replied, “I will obey.”The circle may be about you already. My plea is that you do not pass over it before you have made the choice of good and of God. Many men see their opportunities, but they only who seize them are successful. The day when I accepted Christ there stood at my side a man who saw the truth as plainly as did your servant, but delayed to accept it, and years since he died in spiritual darkness.THE GOOD CHOSEN MUST BE LOVEDFalling in love is not a mere act of the will, but the will has much to do with intelligent affection.

The man who consults his emotions instead of his judgment is fickle in the extreme, and counted a flirt.True love rests in strong conviction. It is more than a fascination for a pretty face and form, and those who do not so count it are likely to come into the courts and seek separation before life is ended.

One reason why so many men are disloyal to those who joined hands with them at the altar, and so many women unfaithful to the pledge of fidelity, is found in the fact that folks go to the hour of orange blossoms without the intelligent conviction of what they want in a wife, or a husband. And the man who accepts the truth of Christ and the love of Christ lightly, not esteeming it the supreme good, but thinking to have it serve him some personal ends, is the man who will give it up and go back to the old life. But the man who believes that righteousness, holiness and salvation are the most estimable of all God’s gifts, will receive them to live by them, and rejoice in them, and will be the least tempted to share his heart with unworthy loves.You remember how the Prophet of old considered this weakness of two affections. When he discovered it in Israel he remonstrated in pathetic tones, and with severe indictment, said of them, “Their heart is divided: now shall they he found faulty!” How common that fault, and how great that fault! People pamper the flesh and propose to shut up the Spirit of God in a heart that still harbors some sin.You may be saying of it as Lot said of Zoar, “Is it not a little one”? But God replies, “Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth”.

One small sin, loved and lived, will drive God out of the heart, and defeat the good in your life.You are familiar with the Æsop parable intended to illustrate this point. It relates that on a certain occasion an Arab was in his tent enjoying its rest and warmth.

A camel coming that way asked to have his nose inside that it might be warmed. The request was granted. Soon he added, “and my head also”, and that was granted. Then he wanted to warm his neck, and when the Arab consented, he stalked in bodily, crowded the Arab against the wall and trampled him under foot, and when the Arab complained that there was not room for both, the camel replied, “Then you go!” Roomy as is the heart of man, it is not great enough for God’s Spirit and any sinful or unclean thing.Joseph saw that truth, and in consequence was the noblest spirit of the Old Testament. His choice of righteousness was so positive and definite that he could suffer wrong and remain generous; be lied about without seeking revenge; be tempted by the lust of beauty, and yet resist; be cast unjustly into jail and yet keep a sweet spirit; be forgotten by those whom he had befriended, and yet not complain. No wonder God brought him forth and set him up on high; gave the interests of the kingdom into his hands, and permitted him to live in comfort, and become the saviour of his people, and of the Egyptians.

God has a hard time to find good men for His offices, and when He finds one, He fills the largest places with him.He who loves the good will stand for the right.William Lloyd Garrison, the apostle of civil equality and human freedom, exemplified that fact. You remember his famous sentence, when beginning the publication of “The Liberator”, the paper that led to his being mobbed at a later time, “I am in earnest; I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard.” And never did he flinch from his promise.Christianity has taken many a coward and converted him into the boldest warrior beneath the sun.

There may be places in the earth for invertebrate men, but the Kingdom of God knows nothing of the sort. Jesus Christ wants for His service men who can stand alone with Him against the world. The fellows who are always feeling the public pulse and acting accordingly are the Judases of His service, forsaking in the hour of exigency, or at the prospect of personal gain. The man who can say with Peter, “Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed Thee”, he shall find that he has gained the life that now is, and the glorious eternity to come. It was written in the olden time, “The fear of man bringeth a snare”, and it is the truth of the ages still. A full-grown man told me that he loved Christ and longed to serve Him, but feared he could never face the “guying” fellows of the shop.

You remember that Christ said, “He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me”, and when He said it, it meant death, and yet John, and Peter, and James, and Paul were not afraid.Have we lost the race of noblemen? Have we fallen on times of ease and compromise with the world?

Can it be that men cannot stand a little ridicule for Christ’s sake, when He for our sakes submitted to jeers, persecutions, scorns, mockings, insult and sufferings unspeakable, and, at the last, death?I love to reflect upon the account of that old Greek who built the Roman Coliseum. When the work was finished, the artist had so well executed it that a festival was held in his honor. According to the custom of the times, the Emperor ordered the Christians brought from their prison, and flung to the hungry lions for the sport of the people, and in honor of the Greek architect. When the noble Greek saw what the Emperor was doing, he arose from his seat at the Emperor’s side, and shouted till the galleries heard him above the voice of the mad multitude, and the roaring lions, and the moaning martyrs, “I, too, am a Christian.” He knew that it meant his martyrdom, but that knowledge did not deter him from courageously confessing Christ.Is it possible that we have reached the point where we will indulge a secret love for Christ, and yet be unwilling to speak His Name lest some unbeliever should scoff?THE GOOD ONCE CHOSEN GROWSEvangelist Keen, in his book on “Faith”, claims that salvation is the exercise of one’s own will in confidence, and that if God gives faith, it is only in seed-grains to be sown and cultivated by us. If we trust Him at one point, we will find it easier to trust him at another, and so may come to trust His every word.It is only after a man has loved and served God that he can sing from the heart,“How firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord, Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word.” But to accept a single promise may effect his salvation and give him a start in the Divine life.Years ago, a graduate of the Ohio University, bowed with some personal workers. He was convicted of sin, but was unsaved. Turning his face to one of them he said, “Oh, give me a promise from God”, and this man Keen replied, “Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him” (Hebrews 7:25). The penitent man answered, “That is what I wanted. I believe it. I accept it, and praise the Lord, I am saved.” Years elapsed, but that man stood firm; and from faith in a single promise which saved, he went on to all of God’s promises that sanctify and fit for service.Begin where you can tonight.

Remember that the time to come will help you to grow. One of the most difficult things I ever did was to make my first testimony for Christ.

Today it is the most delightful of all privileges. My first prayer was a cross indeed. Now it is no more a cross to me to ask my Heavenly Father for what I need than it is to my children to make known their wants to their father. In early experience I feared to speak to others about their souls. My alarm now is lest some men or women who ought to be spoken to should escape me. Begin tonight if you love the good! My last question is, who will begin? Who will commence now?

Who will accept salvation in God’s season? “To-day is the day of salvation”.Sometime ago I was on a Chicago and Alton train, and fell in with the man who was then its superintendent—a noble man indeed. He told me the story of his conversion. Some Y. M. C. A. men years before had come to the shop where he was working and had held meetings, and pled with the men who were there to accept Christ as their Saviour that night. They went to an Opera House and held similar meetings. He was affected in the meeting.

Next night his conviction deepened. He went home, read the paper in silence, turned out the lights and went to bed. Finally he said to his wife, “Wife, why can’t we be Christians?” And I want to tell you men, if you don’t mean business about this matter of serving God, never make such a proposition to your wife, for, God bless her, she will respond and say, “We ought, we can, and if you will consent, we will.” This man’s wife replied, “I wish we were. I want to be. Can’t we be to-night? Can’t you pray, husband?” “1 don’t know how,” he said. “I don’t think I can.” “Well,” she said, “you get down and I’ll try.” So they stole down to the bedside, and there in the darkness they joined hands, and she prayed.

Years before they had stood at the marriage altar, and the preacher had made them one, but their better wedding never occurred until that night when God, by His Holy Spirit, joined their souls “in Christ Jesus”.Oh, I wish you could have heard him! His face was all aglow; a fine fervor seemed pulsing through his whole life, as he said, “I owe everything to that hour, Mr.

Riley. God just took me up. He has made me all I am. He has given me all I have, and there are few happier men this side of Heaven.”Such decisions are glorious. They are grand in their infinite reach. They project the soul into the current of eternal joys.Aggasiz, we are told, stood on a spot in the Alps where he could cast a chip one way, and the little brook bore it off to the Black Sea by way of the Danube. And he could cast another the other way and it would be borne out to the beautiful Mediterranean, by the Rhone. You stand on a similar eminence.

Tonight you can cast your soul into the current that will land it in the Black Sea of Death, and you can, if you will—God help you—cast it into that current of righteousness that will carry you on and out into the Mediterranean of God’s mercy and love.