# Victorious Christian Living  ## Metadata - Author: [[Alan Redpath]] - Full Title: Victorious Christian Living - Category: #books ## Highlights - Scripture quotations in this book are taken from the King James Version of the Bible, unless otherwise indicated. ([Location 6](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=6)) - Alan Redpath was a man who understood the theology of “Christian fullness,” and he lived it. To Alan, victorious Christian living was the Christian life as it was meant to be. It is life where the believer comprehends that Jesus is alive, powerful, and able to live His life through us. We simply must learn, by faith, to trust in His love and goodness to us. As we allow Him to fill our days and fight our battles, He also gives us victory. ([Location 28](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=28)) - We say to the unconverted: “Trust Christ!” We say to the struggling, often-frustrated, Christian: “Try harder! Pray more! Strive onward! Give yourself time!” ([Location 37](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=37)) - Gentle hint to the reader: it’s better to be a consumer of truth than to be a connoisseur of terms. ([Location 41](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=41)) - The best way to vindicate the Word of God is to preach it. ([Location 44](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=44)) - The Old Testament is preparatory to the New. The New cannot be understood apart from the Old, nor can the Old be appreciated apart from the New. ([Location 50](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=50)) - In other words, God’s dealing with Israel was a type of His dealings with you and me. ([Location 53](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=53)) - This is particularly true of the book of Joshua, which we are about to study. Within its pages, I believe, we shall find the secret of so much that is lacking in Christian experience today. ([Location 55](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=55)) - It has been my profound conviction for some years now that the greatest need of the Christian Church is a revival of the New Testament standard of Christian living. There seems to be a very wide gulf between what we believe and how we live, a marked contrast between our position in Christ and our actual experience. Too often do we claim to believe our Bible from cover to cover, but fail to live out its truths in daily conduct. Before we can ever see a real movement of the Spirit of God in blessing to the world in our day, surely the church must face afresh the New Testament pattern, the whole revelation of the Word of God, in its claims on holiness of life and ethical conduct. ([Location 57](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=57)) - This book is written with the fervent prayer and desire that, somehow, the Lord may use it for His glory to help many people to face afresh the implications of the Cross and the pattern of God’s redemption in personal life. ([Location 63](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=63)) - I would suggest that the clue to the interpretation of this Old Testament book is found in the epistle to the Ephesians and in the epistle to the Hebrews. For example, in the third and fourth chapters of Hebrews we find that the land of Canaan is a picture of the spiritual rest and victory which may be enjoyed here on earth by every believer, a rest of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, the Ephesian letter speaks of life “in the heavenly places”—not in heaven, but in the experience of oneness with our Risen Lord in His victory here and now, the place of the fullness of God’s blessing. I believe that we shall understand the real significance of the book of Joshua only if we recognize that what it is in the Old Testament, the epistle to the Ephesians is in the New. ([Location 93](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=93)) - Therefore, as in this opening chapter we survey the book and its meaning as a whole, I want you to think of the analogy between the land of Canaan and the land of full salvation which is the portion of every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. ([Location 99](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=99)) - Is it not also true that the greatest passages in the New Testament are written, not so much for the conversion of the sinner, but for the perfecting of the saint, and for revealing the way of true holiness of life? The foundations of our faith—regeneration and justification—are deeply laid in order that they may carry the superstructure of sanctification and holiness. ([Location 112](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=112)) - Yet is it not true that the majority of Christians come far short, and are content with a wilderness experience—justified, but not enjoying the possession of all their inheritance in Christ? ([Location 117](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=117)) - Are you in the wilderness of defeat, or in the land of victory? Is your life a constant struggle against the powers of darkness, with constant defeat, or is it a victorious war waged in the power of a Risen Lord? ([Location 119](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=119)) - In Romans 7, which I believe to be the experience of a regenerate man, ([Location 124](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=124)) - The Christian does not work up toward victory, he works down from it. We do not struggle toward it, but we stand in it because of the Cross and an empty tomb. ([Location 129](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=129)) - All of the Lord Jesus Christ is mine at the moment of conversion, but I possess only as much of Him as by faith I claim. ([Location 140](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=140)) - To continue the analogy, you will observe that a whole generation died in the wilderness before the land of Canaan was attained. Only Joshua and Caleb of the generation which left Egypt succeeded in entering the land. These things happen yet; indeed, this is the story of the Christian Church today. Surely the state of the Church must be a sorrow to the heart of God. In spite of Calvary, in spite of an empty tomb and an ascended Lord, in spite of Pentecost, the majority of Christians perish in indulgence, worldliness, and sin. “Saved,” as the Apostle Paul says, “but as by fire.” ([Location 141](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=141)) - Full blessing in the Christian life is not bestowed except to eager, hungry people who press in to receive it. ([Location 151](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=151)) - God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, but the blessing is in heavenly places, and these are places to which Satan has access, and where he can still cast all his fiery darts. God does not bless His child unless He sees him eager for the blessing. He does not pour out of His fullness on a plate, as it were, and invite us to help ourselves at a low level of expectancy. He desires every one of His children to press in against all the assaults of the enemy, that we may lay hold of that which is our inheritance in the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that every foe we shall ever meet in that battle already has been met and conquered by our Joshua. ([Location 152](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=152)) - Most of us, God forgive us, are too big for God to use. We are too full of our own schemes and of our own way of doing things. God has to humble us and break us and empty us. So low, indeed, must God make us that we need every word of encouragement from heaven to enable us to take on the job and dare to go forward in the will of God. ([Location 184](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=184)) - The world speaks about the survival of the fittest, but God gives power to the faint and He gives might to those who have no strength. He perfects His strength in weakness; He uses the things that are not to bring to nought the things that are. ([Location 186](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=186)) - Consider with me, then, three sources of Joshua’s strength as a leader of God’s people. First of all, I would ask you to observe that here is a faithful man. ([Location 189](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=189)) - If Josephus the historian is accurate, Joshua had lived for forty years in bondage to Egypt. He had known the hardship, the frustration, the cruelty, the intolerance of the taskmasters. For forty more years he had patiently endured the wanderings in the wilderness. In the course of that journey he had fought with and defeated the enemies of God’s people, the Amalekites. Joshua had gone into the Promised Land, and he had returned with a minority report. He had seen the giants, but he believed his God was able. And after Joshua’s eighty years of faithful service behind the scenes, suddenly God speaks to him and bids him assume the position of leadership of this mighty army. ([Location 193](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=193)) - In the kitchen of a little apartment in London the wife of a friend of mine has a little motto over the kitchen sink which reads like this: “Divine service is conducted here three times daily.” I think there is a breath of heaven about that. It is our faithfulness in these small things that enables us to be men whom, someday, God can trust with big things. ([Location 202](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=202)) - Let none of us allow past failures to keep him from getting on his feet and stepping forward to do what he believes to be God’s will. If some disheartened Christian is reading this book, somebody who feels that his past will prevent him from taking a responsibility in the army of God, I bid him, in my Master’s Name, be strong and of a good courage; neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. ([Location 215](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=215)) - The second qualification of leadership is a distinct call: “There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them” ( Joshua 1:5–6). This is the second source of strength for spiritual leadership—a distinct call. ([Location 218](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=218)) - If any of you are seeking a position of power in your church, I hope that you will resign—or get right with God. We need men of God, men who have been broken by the Spirit of God, men who desire only the glory of God in our churches today. ([Location 230](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=230)) - The third source of power and strength for Christian leadership is the indwelling of the Word of God. ([Location 240](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=240)) - Through the Word of God the Spirit of God comes in fullness on your life, and occupies your heart. Here is the secret of all power in leadership: to be possessed by the Son of God, to be strengthened by His indwelling power, and to be filled by His Spirit. And here is the only way: “Thou shalt meditate therein day and night.” There is no short cut to holiness. ([Location 243](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=243)) - I am telling you this from personal experience, and, I believe, as I get it from the Old Book, that if a man would be holy he has to go to God in prayer and meditate on the Word. If a man would walk with God, if a man would live a holy life, if a man would assume authority and hold it down, because God holds him down, he has to know what it is to pay the price of a closed door—sometimes even his family are on the other side—for no Christian leader is more effective in his leadership than when he is alone with God, on his knees. ([Location 246](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=246)) - To be saturated with the Word of God is to be assured of the presence of God. ([Location 256](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=256)) - A faithful past, a sound vocation, a filling with the Word of God—what can we do to prove worthy of Him? Let us take our weakness, and our trembling, and our fears before Him; let there be an absolute submission to the indwelling power of His blessed Spirit. Let us ask that all these qualities that were revealed in Christ be imparted to us, that they may be real in your life and mine. ([Location 259](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=259)) - There is a price to be paid. Are you willing to pay it? Cancel every responsibility in your life other than what you believe to be God’s will for you. Deliberately refuse any engagement which will keep you from meditation on His Word. We are living in an age which has lost the art of being silent with an open Bible and waiting for God to speak. ([Location 262](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00EG0D7DM&location=262))