AT THE SURREY TABERNACLE, Borough Road
“The watchman said, The morning comes, and also the night: if you will inquire, inquire you: return come.” Isaiah 21:12
THE night means three things. First, the setting of the sun national of the Jews, when darkness should cover their earth, and gross darkness the people; that was the night that was to come upon them, and that night did come, though we learn from their writings that they all made sure that not the night of this verse, but the morning of this verse, belonged unto them. This assurance they derived on the ground that they were the literal descendants of Abraham; yet, instead of the morning it was the night that overtook them; but, nevertheless, in connection with that, the light did arise upon some. The second thing meant by the night is that which must overtake all, although under very different circumstances, namely, that of death; that night also must come. Happy is the man that is favored with that lamp of salvation that shall light him triumphantly through that dark night. And the third thing meant by the night is that eternal banishment from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, to which at last millions must be subjected. Thus, then, “The morning comes,” namely, Christ Jesus, “and also the night if you will inquire, inquire you return, come.” I shall not be able to take up in one sermon every part of our text; I must, therefore, somewhat condense it. And I notice, in the first place, the watchman and his work. Secondly, the morning light into which the saved are brought. Thirdly and lastly, the practical inquirer, “If you will inquire, inquire you; return, come.”
I notice, then, first, the watchman and his work, Ministers are called watchmen, and they, of course, must understand their business. You will also observe that it is a character that belongs to every one of the people of God; for the Savior said to his disciples that which he meant for all, “What I say unto you I say unto all; Watch.” I will therefore take, very hastily, a fourfold view of the watchman and his work. First, the watchman is to know God's truth, and he is to watch and see that nothing, but that truth is brought into the city. Hence, in the 52nd of Isaiah, we have an epitome of that gospel which the minister is to defend, and, indeed, which the people of God are to defend; for all are set for the defense of the gospel; and that gospel, I say, which they are to defend, is in the 52nd of Isaiah set forth in a very concise and beautiful way. “How beautiful upon the mountains!” the mountains meaning the elevation of the gospel; the mountains meaning the high standing of the people of God, that they are lifted up from the degradations of sin, they are lifted up from the degradations of condemnation, they are lifted up, from the degradations of death and of hell, and made to stand in the love of God, in the favor of God, upon the promises of God, upon the Rock of ages; and therefore, because of their being thus lifted up, they are spoken of as being on the mountains. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publishes peace!” Now this is the first essential, I may say, of the gospel. We all of us by nature are at war with God, and therefore at war, in reality, with our own souls; as says Wisdom in the Proverbs, “He that sins against me wrongs his own soul.” Peace, then, with God is by the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ has made peace; this is clear that he has made peace, that he has put away all that which created discord, and that lighted up the wrath of God. He, therefore, having put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, sin is not imputed unto them that believe; God reconciling the world unto himself by Jesus Christ, not imputing their trespasses unto them. This is one thing we are to stand fast by the delightful truth of the peace that Jesus Christ has made. Where then should we look for peace? Is not everything under the sun uncertain? Is not life uncertain? health uncertain? wealth uncertain? friends uncertain? the weather uncertain? seasons uncertain? everything that we can name under the sun uncertain? But here, in Christ Jesus, there is no uncertainty; there the peace is everlasting peace, there the reconciliation is complete. This is one thing we are to stand out for. And “that brings good tidings of good things.” That is another item of the gospel for which we are to stand out. What are we to understand by good tidings of good things? Can there be such a thing as evil tidings of good things? Yes. The harvest that the Jews had was a good thing, and the vintage they had was a good thing. But presently the tidings come up to Jerusalem, saying, There was abundant harvest, but the Midianites have taken it all away. That is evil tidings of good things. There was a good vintage, but the Midianites have taken it all away; our harvest is gone, our vintage is gone, and we are left destitute. Well, now, that we may call evil tidings of good things. Now Jesus Christ is our harvest, and we shall never have to report that our harvest is taken away; Jesus Christ, shall I say, is our vintage, and we shall never have to report that the atonement of Jesus Christ, the blood of the everlasting covenant, is taken away. Jesus Christ himself is our harvest, he is the bread of life, and we shall never have to report that he is taken away; he is the wine of the kingdom that cheers our hearts, and we shall never have to report that he is taken away. He will never have in heaven to report that one of his sheep is taken away; he will never have in heaven to report that one of his brethren is taken away. No; there is the man clothed with linen, with the inkhorn by his side; he marks his own, gives commandment to all agencies of destruction, and says unto them, “Come not near any man upon whom is the mark.” So that he gives good tidings of us by what he has constituted us, and we shall ever have good tidings of good. This is another item of the gospel, then, we are to abide by. First, the peace that Jesus Christ has made; and, secondly, the certainty of the thing. That is the doctrine conveyed, the certainty “of the things;” “good tidings of good.” And then the next item of the gospel is final deliverance from all that is evil; “that publishes salvation” eternal salvation. So that you who are brought thus to look to God by Jesus Christ, and brought into harmony with his way of saving a sinner, and brought into the certainty of God's truth, you have not a trouble this morning, nor a burden, nor an affliction, nor a fear, nor a grief, nor a sore, nor a plague, nor a perplexity, nor an entanglement, nor an enemy, nor a pain, nor a sorrow, nor a want, that you will not by-and-bye be delivered from; you will get out by-and-bye; yes, you will certainly. Salvation, we must stick to this, that “Israel shall be saved in the Lord,” and that “with an everlasting salvation.” And so, if you are not out of the lion's den now, you will get out by-and-bye; if you are not out of the wilderness now, you will get out by-and-bye; if you are not out of the wood now, you will get out by-and-bye ; if you are not out of the grave yet, as it were, having that to go through, you will get out by-and-bye. This is another item of the gospel that you are to abide by.
And that the Lord God omnipotent reigns is another item of the gospel we are to abide by. Now, then, the watchmen, and, indeed, all the people of God, are to understand this reconciliation to God, and abide by it, and see that no human invention is brought in to form any part of reconciliation to God, and see that no human doctrine is suffered to mingle with the certainty of God's truth, and see that no creature doing is suffered to come in to form any part of God s salvation, and see that God's immutable counsel is that by which we are to abide. Now, says the same prophet, 52nd of Isaiah, very next verse, “Your watchmen shall lift up the voice.” What voice? Why, the voice of truth, the voice of reconciliation to God, the voice of mercy's certainty, the voice of eternal salvation, the voice of the sure reign of eternal mercy; the Lord God omnipotent reigns. “They shall lift up the voice; with the voice together” this gospel, “shall they sing.” And so, strange as the place was, and unexpectedly, especially to the enemies, we find two of these shut up in jail, and they prayed unto the Lord and began to sing praises, and you know the wondrous results that followed therefrom. “They shall lift up the voice together;” and so the apostles all agreed as to the way of peace, they all agreed as to the certainty of the new covenant, they all agreed as to the entirety of God's salvation, and they all agreed upon the great truth that Jesus must reign till he has put down all that rule that would hinder the ingathering of his people, his possession of them, and their possession of eternal glory. “For they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion.” And so, the apostles did see eye to eye. There had never been such a class of men before, and there never will be again. The apostles did see eye to eye; they all understood each other, and whatever revelations were made to one, that one, if they were together, related that revelation to another; and whatever epistles one wrote, if the other could get hold of them he was glad to read them. So, Peter tells us that he was acquainted with the epistles of Paul, the wonderful things contained in those epistles. And they all saw eye to eye, and they have put their inspired, their infallible testimony upon record, nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. Thus, God gave us watchmen then, he has given us watchmen since. It is true, we have not many watchmen, none, indeed, so keen eyed as were the apostles; and the reason we do not see more eye to eye is because we are so short-sighted, most of us, and because so many carnal things, and so much carnal ease attends the profession of religion in our day, that it wonderfully blinds our minds to the beauty and excellency of eternal things. If we are strangers to their sufferings, we are in a great measure strangers to their joy. Now, then, it is this gospel that the people of God are to abide by. I will tell you presently how the watchman does his work; I have merely been pointing out one thing they have to look after. The second thing they have to look after is the city of God; or if you like, the church of God. Their sympathies are to be with the church of God, their prayers are to be for the church of God. “After I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.” Hence, as the watchman, then, is to watch very narrowly the welfare of the church, he is to stand and defend and maintain the dignity of the church, never for one moment give up the dignity of the church. Let us hear what the Lord says upon, this part of the watchman's work. And he speaks of it in this way: “For Zion's sake I will hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burns.” And then the Lord, in that 62nd chapter of this same book, Isaiah, I am now referring to, he then, as you are aware, describes the church in her dignity, how she is to him as a crown of glory and a royal diadem, and how he delights in her, And now he says concerning the blessedness of this church, “I have set watchmen upon your walls,” Here, you observe, the church is represented by that complicated kind of figure as a city, and as a bride; and you find the same representation in the book of Revelation; the angel says, “I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife;” then he says, “I saw the holy city.” This is purely Oriental idiom, speaking after that manner. Now, “I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night; you that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence; and give him no rest, till he establishes, and till he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth,” And so, the apostles did labor, and they did not hold their peace, and they did not rest, until the Lord did establish Jew and Gentile, until the Lord did make the new Jerusalem a praise in the earth, Notwithstanding the errors that abounded before the apostles left the world, yet when they left the world they left a new Jerusalem on the earth, they left a Hephzibah on the earth, they left a Christian church established on the earth. And though that Christian church has from age to age been very much obscured, beclouded, clouds have rested upon the daughter of Zion, yet she still exists; so that there is still a people, even in this latter age, that are established in the truth as it is in Jesus. Now when the apostle Paul saw men bringing into this city another gospel, he pronounced a curse upon them. And, therefore, the watchmen are to stand out for the dignity of the church. “This is the name wherewith she shall be called; Jehovah our Righteousness.” If ministers did not do this, speaking after the manner of men, why, the church would soon lose her dignity; that is to say, she would lose sight of her oneness with Jesus Christ, and place her consolation in anything else; she would lose sight of her lofty name as Jehovah our righteousness, and derive her comfort from something else, from some feasible, fiddling doings of men, hardly anything else to be heard of in our day. And therefore, it is the minister must maintain the dignity of the church, shall I so speak? He must keep her, as it were, in the sunlight, that she may be arrayed in nothing short of the light of the sun of righteousness; he must keep her, as it were upon gospel ground, that the moon of the gospel may light her steps through this wilderness world; and he must keep her in such a position as to make to culminate upon her head all the testimonies of prophets and apostles, “upon her head was a crown of twelve stars.” And thus the watchman must maintain the dignity of the church; must not lower her dignity, must not lesson her dignity; must not array her in free-will apparel, for that would be strange apparel; he must not array her in duty-faith apparel, for that is linsey-woolsey apparel. He must not do anything of this; no, he must maintain her dignity, and pay all that respect to her that is due to her. “Upon your right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.” So, then, the watchman is a man that must defend the truth, and defend the church; and, as I have said, all the people of God are one with the minister in this. Are we not one with the prophets in this? When we find them defending the truth, do not their decisions for truth vibrate in our very souls, and our souls respond to the same? When we find the apostles express their solemn decision for the delightful truth that “it is not of works, but that it is of faith, that it might be by grace,” do not our souls respond to the same? Thus, then, the ministers and the people are to abide by the truth, and for the dignity of the church.
The third thing the minister is to abide by, the watchman is to abide by, is the provision made for the church. Mind he does not go trading with another kind of food for the sake of cheapness or popularity. Hence, in that 62nd of Isaiah., the watchmen stands associated with what I have already referred to, that which sustains the church, “The Lord has sworn by his righthand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no more give your corn to be meat for your enemies.” And that corn is Christ Jesus, that corn is the gospel, that corn is the right experiences of the people of God. “And the sons of the stranger shall not drink your wine, for the which you have labored that is, for which you have labored in your heavenly husband. Jesus brought it together, and you are represented as bringing it together; he labored for it, and you are represented as laboring for it; he did the work, and it is set to your account, as though you did it; and by-and-bye the very work that he himself did he will, in infinite mercy, attribute to you. “Well done, you good and faithful servant: you have been faithful” but he made, it so, “over a few things; I will make you ruler over many things: enter you into the joy of your Lord.” Thus, the watchmen are to defend the truth of God, the church of God, and that sure provision which the Lord has for the people. Fourth, and that is the last I will name, they are also to defend the rest which they have in Christ. By what Jesus Christ has done there is an entire release; not one of your faults will be laid to your account. When ministers tell us that when we die, if we happen to come short in any of our doings, we shall be dragged through Jordan by the hair of the head, that is a very pretty husband to drag his wife about by the hair of her head. Who would want to go home to such a husband as that? David gives a very different representation of it. He says, “When I shall pass through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” And he had some cause to fear it, legally speaking, but evangelically speaking he had no cause to fear; legally speaking, he had great cause for fear. He knew the Mediator; he knew the great Melchizedek; he knew he should pass through without fear. There is, therefore, in Christ entire release, rest. And the minister that is alive to this matter, he will be the very one, if that rest be at all disturbed, to defend the entire release. “Behold his bed, which is Solomon's;” peaceable, the peaceable king; that is the rest that Christ gives. “Threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel. They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man has his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.” If a man come and bring any conditionality, have his head off in a minute; I do not mean literally, but spiritually. If an enemy, a man, come to spoil in any measure the resting-place of the righteous, have his head off in a minute; leave him, turn him out, stand at no repairs, I mean spiritually and in the way of testimony; give way not for a single moment. No; there the release is entire, the rest is eternal; they that believe shall enter into rest, and there remains a rest for the people of God.
But now let us see how the watchman was to do his work. The watchman was to do his work, not only by being upon the alert, but there is a secret here that will unfold to us many scriptures. It is this; a watchman is watching; he sees a lion coming; he sees an army of demons coming. Well, the watchman says, What am I to this army? I can do nothing to them; what is the good of my watching? I will tell you what the watchman did. He went off directly to the king, and the king came with the powers he had at command; he rolled the army back, and so the citadel is safe, the provision is safe, and the people are safe. Just so the man of God. When he sees things going on in a way that has a tendency to bring us into bondage, to rob us of the truth in any way whatever, to rob us of any of that liberty we have in Christ, that minister is to go and tell the Lord of it, and then the Lord has plenty of power at command, and he comes in by the power of his judgments upon the adversary, and by the power of his Spirit upon the minister, and the power of his Spirit upon the people; the adversaries are scattered, Pharaoh is overturned, Israel is delivered. Hence, suppose some people are building a house, as the Jews of old were the house of the Lord; an army came and stopped them. What did they do? They told the Lord of it: they could do nothing themselves, told the Lord of it. And they waited the Lord's pleasure; and at the end of twenty-one years, that is a long time, certainly, the Lord stepped in, turned the heart of the king of Assyria towards them, repelled the adversaries, rolled them back, and the people were free, and on they went with the work. Hence, you see, “except the Lord build the house, the watchman wakes in vain.” Now the watchman was useful to give the alarm to go to the Lord. Not that the Lord does not know, but then it is his order of things to make our requests known by prayer and supplication. But “except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.” So the city,—the watchman says, Why, here is an army coming against the city; I shall wake in vain unless you art pleased to step in. But the Lord did step in, and said, He,—that man that has his hundred and fourscore thousand men at his back, why, he shall not shoot an arrow into this city. And they rose the next morning, and, behold, they were all dead corpses, the hundred and fourscore thousand—that is to say, dead bodies. So it is, then, “except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it and except the Lord keep the city, the watchman can do nothing. He gives the alarm, runs to the king; the king steps in and does all that is needful. Now do you understand me? When you are in trouble, tell the Lord of it; look to the Lord, and he will step in, he will take care of the city. So, the truth of God. I may preach the truth till I die, and every other minister the same, but unless the Lord is with the minister, to open the eyes of the people, and to bring them in, why, then the minister preaches in vain, labors in vain. The minister may watch, and be upon the alert upon every system of error that would creep in, and be determined to cast it out; but then, if the Lord is not with him, to take the people with him, and to enlighten them, and to bring them out into the same decision, why, then the watchman wakes in vain. So “except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it; except the Lord keep the city, the watchman wakes in vain.” Now can you understand it. This is God's order of things: The Lord's keeping us does not supersede our watching and our watching does not supersede the Lord's watching over us. It is the Lord's own order of things, in order to engage us in his service. Thus, then, I have pointed out, very defectively, the watchman and his work. There are a great many things belonging to the position of a minister, of course I shall not this morning occupy your time in entering into. The apostle sums it all up when he said to Timothy, “Watch you in all things” do not go to sleep, be careful, “endure afflictions;” you will have them in one shape or other. A minister's position is the highest dignity, next to real religion itself, that a man can have, and with divine grace, and gifts to speak, it is a great honor put upon him; and that minister would be one of the happiest men under the sun if the devil and fools would let him alone; but then devil and fools will be very busy, and that makes his position sometimes so uncomfortable that, like Jeremiah, he is ready to say he will not speak in the name of the Lord any more. But the fire burns again, and on he goes. He forgets, when he is fretful, that there cannot be an adversary move further than the Lord permits and suffers, and it is intended for his good, and for the good of others. For I suppose an easy minister would need a very easy people to preach to. A minister that is never cast down, and never himself tried, certainly would not be very likely to find out or sympathize with those that are tried. Hence it is, then, that they are to weep with them that weep, and rejoice with them that rejoice. But they will never weep voluntarily, you may depend upon it; no one is fond of being in trouble. But if trouble take us up, and carry us about, and drive us about, and knock us about, and twist us about, and turn us about sometimes most terribly, as Job says, “You lift me up to the wind;” but, bless the Lord, if trouble take us up, it must put us down again by-and-bye, when the Master comes; when he comes in, the trouble must go; when lie puts his hand on the trouble must take its hand off: then we feel we are happy, when he gathers us with his arm, into his bosom, and we realize a little of his gentleness and rejoice in his mercy. The watchman and his work. “Endure afflictions; do the work of an evangelist” That word evangelist means “a bringer of good tidings.” And the minster had nothing for the people of God but good tidings, no. If there had been a curious man among the reapers of Boaz, and had said to the others, I will just run over to Moab, and ascertain the antecedents of this Ruth, and see if I can bring up something against her, He comes back; just as he has got his message ready, Boaz gives him a lift in a way he does not like, makes a heave offering of him, and heaves him out of the field; that is what he would have done with him, you may depend upon it. So, if they begin to beat the servants, the Lord of those wicked servants shall come in an hour when they think not, cut them in two, and appoint them their portion with the hypocrites. Let the minister's affections, then, be with God, with the truth, and with the people of God, their welfare, and thus hereby he will, after the best order possible, care really and truly for the souls of men.
But now we come to the morning. “The morning comes;” bless the Lord for it! and this morning is Jesus Christ. It is a rough morning, a very rough morning; it is a morning of war, very rough morning indeed. Let us follow the words of God, then, as to the revelation of it, and see whether we are brought into this morning; for this morning, Christ Jesus, is the morning of an everlasting day. How does the morning begin? It begins like this: Numbers 24, “There shall come a star out of Jacob” there is the morning star; “and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.” The children of Sheth there means the Jews, and Christ destroyed them all, as to their national organization. “He shall smite the corners of Moab.” Moab there represents the world, so I take it; and he goes forth, and by his Spirit smites one Saul of Tarsus to the ground, pricks another in the heart, breaks the neck of the pride of another, and they fall like thistles before him; he fills the places with dead bodies, goes on conquering and to conquer. As the poet sings,
“The stoutest rebel must resign,
At your commanding word.”
Christian, you can look back to the time when the word of God smote you, perhaps first gently, then a little harder, and then a little harder; and smote you, and smote you, till it brought you down into the dust of the deepest humiliation before God; and that while you were laboring in your pride, in came the word of the Lord, and smote you down. “By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified; he that offends in one point shall be guilty of the whole.” Thus, the morning, then, begins with the sinner by his being smitten. Little does he think the blessedness that this soul-trouble is the beginning of. And what is the language of those that are thus smitten down, that the word of God has made thus wretched? 6th of Hosea: “Come and let us return unto the Lord: for he has torn, and he will heal us; he has smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us;” the time is appointed; “in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sigh;” he will raise us up from all this smiting and all this trouble, to sit together in heavenly places with his dear Son. “Then shall we know, if we follow on to know;” follow on! follow on! follow on! says one; what, I follow on! Is there any danger of my going back? Why, I would rather die than go back. Follow on! follow on! “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” That if alarms the Christian; it does not alarm the mere professor; he says, Well, I shall see, I shall see, and I shall see. Not so the man in earnest; not so the man that is smitten effectually; not so the man that is torn asunder from all his false hope. “Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord; his going forth is prepared as the morning,” Christ Jesus is the morning, and there is God's preparation to pardon every sin he meets with; there is his preparation to invite every poor sinner that he has made sensible of his state to come and reason with him, “Come, and let us reason together;” I am prepared to reason with you; I am prepared to do what I say, that “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though red like crimson, they shall, be as wool.” He is prepared to go forth as the morning, Christ Jesus; there God is prepared to show all the mercy, all the grace, all the loving-kindness, and all the goodness a sinner can need. And he will take care to prepare the sinner for the reception of it, he will take care of that. The preparation of the heart in man, as well as the answer of the tongue, is of the Lord. And not only is he prepared thus to heal, to bind up, and grant you all the mercy that you need; but notice the gentle manner after which he will do it. “He shall come unto us as the rain” Well, now, when the clouds in the upper regions fall, and condense into immense reservoirs of water, if they could come down upon the earth in that state, why, it would drown every town, and every city, and every village, and every person on the face of the earth. But no; there is an intervening atmosphere by which the Lord regulates it, so that the rain comes down genially, gently; for we must take the gentle rains there, not the stormy ones. “He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth;” he shall come to us gently and kindly; his very doctrine shall drop as the rain, distil as the dew, And, bless the Lord, the rain tarries not for men, nor waits for the sons of men, And thus, then, it is a morning in which the sinner is awakened, he never saw before his real position; he never saw that he had been sleeping as on the top of a mast, sleeping as in the midst of the sea; that he has been sleeping as upon the precipice of hell. Now his eyes are opened, and the light begins to shine, even the light of God's mercy, the light of salvation; and the time will come when such, so awakened, will say, “This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad.” To the law and to the testimony;” the law of truth and the testimony of Christ; “if they speak not according to this law, it is because there is no light in them.” Some of you, when you first came here, you were fast asleep, and you went away rubbing your eyes, and so offended to think you were disturbed; but happily you could not go to sleep again. Ah! you said, ever since I heard that fellow, I have not been able to go to sleep again; never winked since. Do not mean you should; you have slept long enough, I think. And now that your sleep is a little bit shaken off, and you are awakened up to see why you are awakened up, why, you are glad now that you did awake; and now your prayer is, when you get a little bit sleepy, “Lord, when I am a little bit sleepy, say to me in mercy, ‘Awake you that sleeps, rise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.”' “The morning comes,” then. Bless the Lord, this morning has come with many of us. We can look back to the time when we were fast asleep in sin's embrace, Satan's embrace, in death's embrace, content to be the guests of hell; but God awakened us up, we rose from the dust; there we wore as dry bones, but, bless the Lord, he formed us into living souls, and brought us to know something of that light, light of the sun that will never go down. The second feature of this morning (and I suppose that must be the last I must notice, though I am not a quarter or the way through my subject) the second feature that I shall notice is the victory these people shall have that are thus awakened up, and what they shall be like at last. First the victory, Revelation 2, “He that overcomes;” yes, by receiving Christ Jesus in the victory that he has wrought, you overcome what you are by nature, you overcome sin, Satan, and everything that is against you.