Victorious Christian Living book review

 I highly recommend Victorious Christian Living by James W. Knox. It isn't often that you read a book that will edify and encourage you while also reproving you! This book helps you to view some of the most popular Bible stories in a whole new light.

Below, I have taken just a few excerpts from various chapters in the first part of the book. I believe from just these small snippets that you will get a great blessing!

Each life is one of choices, and the smallest of those may well lead to the largest of circumstances. David, will you fall today? No. David, will you commit great crimes today? No. David, it is time to go to battle, will you go? No. Never did he think that the failure to do his duty would result in so much ruin.

We have a tendency to view sin only in the positive, the overt, the action. It is difficult for us to think of sin in terms of neutrality or idleness. David did not fall because of something he did but because of something he did not do. A failure to be where he should have been when he should have been there set the stage of one of scripture's great tragedies.

Can the man who allows himself a drink of liquor here and there be certain the lust for intoxicants will not consume him? Can the one careless with spending be sure a gambling habit or bankruptcy is not in the future? Can the woman who plays the flirt today rest assured she will not be an adulteress tomorrow? Wrath, bitterness, sloth, a wandering eye, stubbornness, fear... The list could go on and and. Yea, any sin allowed to abide has the potential to eventually grow into something hideous.

Oh that each of us could believe the word of the Lord when it warns of how near we are to ruin and how certainly we must depend upon Him every hour of every day. Let no reader say, "Such a thing could not happen to me." Our victories have not been as great as David's. our highs have not reached such lofty peaks. Our experiences with God have been miniscule compared to his. Yet down he went- so far and so fast.

But the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). If David is to escape death, then someone else must die. He is now so debased that he will carry out a plot to kill the husband of Bathsheba in order to spare himself the shame of exposure.

Uriah is seen in his nobility and his honor, but the Lord does not step in to protect or preserve him, for this was sin's hour, and it pays its wage in death so as to spit in the face of the God of life and love.

I thought I got away with it- BUT.

I thought God did not know or care- BUT.

I thought the way was clear- BUT.

I thought the scripture could be broken- BUT.

I thought God was love and would not judge- BUT.

I thought the Lord just wanted me happy- BUT.

But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD. (II Samuel 11:27)

So, the Lord did not send Nathan when David walked the rooftop. He did not send Nathan to interrupt the men when they were collecting Bathsheba. He did not send Nathan when Uriah slept on the palace steps. He did not send Nathan when David poured the strong drink. He did not send Nathan when the murderous orders were being issued to Joab. David is on trial. His life is not scripted. God sits back, watching to see what the man will do.

Therefore the Lord does not interfere with David's actions but allows them to play out and then rewards or disciplines accordingly.

It will be thus with each of us. We are to be fully conversant with the word of God, completely filled with the Holy Spirit, ever ready to deny the flesh what it craves because our love for Jesus Christ is fervent and genuine. When temptation arises, God will not force us to choose the right, nor can Satan compel us to embrace the wrong. We will manifest our love- for the Savior or for the sin. The triune God will watch us act. Then He will respond accordingly.

Despite all David's efforts to hide his sin from the eyes of man, the Lord beheld it all. Hebrews 4:13 may be a warning or a blessing. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

David unwittingly pronounces his own doom. The law did not demand death for taking a lamb (the story Nathan told to David), but it did for adultery, and it did for murder. Before his days are through, David will bury four loved ones in consequence of the blood he shed. When it is time for him to reap what he has sown, there will be no pity, for David had none for all those victimized by his transgressions.

How often could God say to some deluded man, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee (Luke 19:22). David knows a price must be paid for sins against God and man.

The New Testament says it this way: Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Galatians 6:7).

As referenced previously, Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death (James 1:15).

Note carefully that in none of these passages or similar ones are we told that God is punishing His people. What we find, rather, is that sin produces that which causes pain, heartache, sorrow, death, etc. God does not have to do anything. He withholds grace, mercy, protection, and blessing in measure and allows the consequences of sin to race into the life and fill the empty place created by the sinner when he chose to exclude the Lord.

Matthew 6:24- No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Here Christ destroys the modern nonsense that one can commit sin and love the Lord. Today's so-called Christian actually believes that living after the flesh and following Jesus are compatible. In reality, it is impossible to embrace both. David could not hold Bathsheba in his arms and hold God in his heart. He had to despise (to contemn; to scorn; to disdain; to have the lowest opinion of) one or the other, and he chose to despise God. Because thou has despised me (II Samuel 12:10).

Faced with the facts, the king finally tells the truth. And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD (II Samuel 12:13). The reply comes immediately from the throne, And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. 

Stunning! This must be understood and embraced. David confesses his sin. David will forsake his sin and not repeat it. The Lord puts it away. Though the king has committed two death-penalty offences, he will not be put to death. He is forgiven.

Thus it is evident that God is not going to punish the man but that things set in motion by his transgression will be allowed to play themselves out. We too often ask in our troubles, "Why is the Lord doing this to me?" He is not. He is merely allowing the master we chose to serve to give us our reward.

We seek to cover the wrongs we have done because we know that other men will despise us if they had known us fully. The One who already knows our every thought and deed has promised if we will just repent, He will not despise us.

I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD (Psalm 32:5). Then, at last, he chooses to repent. There is no intermediary. He does not go to the high priest. He does not seek out a departed saint. There are no hurdles to climb or hoops through which to jump; no candles to be lit or penance to be paid. He sinned against God, and he will go to God.His transgressions were of the Lord's commands, and to the Lord he will go for pardon.

How happy we are today with these words from Scripture, telling us that if we will confess our sins, He is not only faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse (I John 1:9), but to shelter, to guide, and to instruct us. We may have wasted and ruined many days past, but we may know songs of victory in days ahead. What wondrous love!

Titus 3:3-7 puts it thus: For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

We have taken a dark and painful journey down into the depths of David's transgression. We have known the joy of climbing out of that mire and rejoicing on the mountaintop of God's pardon. We now must leave that mountain to take up residence in the hill country where forgiven farmers patiently reap what they have sown beneath the sunshine of God's tender mercy.

Should the Lord declare that the wages of sin are death and then nullify the consequences of sin, He would both make himself a liar and embolden men to live wanton lives with no fear of judgment.

And it came to pass on the seventh day, that the child died (II Samuel 12:18) As we mentioned last time, when David prayed a prayer of repentance asking God to forgive his sin, the immediate answer was yes. When David prayed a prayer of supplication asking God to nullify the consequences of his sin, the answer was no.

The result of our repentance is that we are right with God. God's making everything right because we have repented is not part of the package.

There will be deaths and funerals and grief and setbacks and plots and betrayal and tears and sorrow, and the king will wash, dress, eat, worship, and take care of his family. This is the life he has made for himself. It could have been better, but sin... This is the road he must walk. It could have been smoother, but iniquity... This is the harvest he will reap. It could have been more pleasant, but he saw a woman...

Is it possible that God would use him again? Is it possible that there is still a place of service after such disgrace? Is it possible that he could once more know the joy of victory, the warmth of fellowship, and the exhilaration of accomplishment for the Lord? The answer each time is yes. Restoration! How sweet the thought!

He will never be the same, but he is not a castaway. He will ever carry the marks of his fall, but he can and will be used of Jehovah until the day of his death.

This is our God. This is grace, love, forgiveness, renewing, hope, and joy. This is the wonder of the Lord.

I encourage each person to get a copy of this book!