The Overcoming Life, and Other SermonsMoody, Dwight Lyman
Religion
The Overcoming Life, and Other Sermons
Moody, Dwight Lyman
Evangelistic sermons; Evangelistic work; Sermons, American
If you wish to be brought into the clear light of liberty, you must
take your stand on Christ's side. I have known many Christians go
groping about in darkness, and never get into the clear light of the
kingdom, because they were ashamed to confess the Son of God. We are
living in a day when men want a religion without the cross. They want
the crown, but not the cross. But if we are to be disciples of Jesus
Christ, we have to take up our crosses _daily_--not once a year, or on
the Sabbath, but daily. And if we take up our crosses and follow Him,
we shall be blessed in the very act.
I remember a man in New York who used to come and pray with me. He had
his cross. He was afraid to confess Christ. It seemed that down at the
bottom of his trunk he had a Bible. He wanted to get it out and read
it to the companion with whom he lived, but he was ashamed to do it.
For a whole week that was his cross; and after he had carried the
burden that long, and after a terrible struggle, he made up his mind.
He said, "I will take my Bible out tonight and read it." He took it
out, and soon he heard the footsteps of his mate coming upstairs.
His first impulse was to put it away again, but then he thought he
would not--he would face his companion with it. His mate came in, and
seeing him at his Bible, said,
"John, are you interested in these things?" "Yes," he replied.
"How long has this been, then?" asked his companion.
"Exactly a week," he answered; "for a whole week I have tried to get
out my Bible to read to you, but I have never done so till now."
"Well," said his friend, "it is a strange thing. _I was converted on
the some night_, and I too was ashamed to take my Bible out."
You are ashamed to take your Bible out and say, "I have lived a
godless life for all these years, but I will commence now to live a
life of righteousness." You are ashamed to open your Bible and read
that blessed Psalm, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." You
are ashamed to be seen on your knees. No man can be a disciple of
Jesus Christ without bearing His cross. A great many people want to
know how it is Jesus Christ has so few disciples, whilst Mahomet has
so many. The reason is that Mahomet gives no cross to bear. There are
so few men who will come out to take their stand.
I was struck during the American war with the fact that there were so
many men who could go to the cannon's mouth without trembling, but who
had not courage to take up their Bibles to read them at night. They
were ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God
unto salvation. "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him
will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever
shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which
is in heaven."
4. The "I Will" of Service.
The next _I will_ is the "I will" of service.
There are a good many Christians who have been quickened and aroused
to say, "I want to do some service for Christ."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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