A Danger in Not Seeking a Sanctified Heart

BLJ: Below is a story about the dangers of not seeking a sanctified heart. Read it prayerfully if you have not paid the price, died out, and been sanctified wholly. It is a somber read.


RHODA REMINDS US THAT DEPRAVITY IS DISASTROUS [32]

Rhoda Sacra, missionary to Alaska, strongly emphasizes the all -- importance of getting the terrible life-corrupting and soul-destroying carnality out of the heart. She declared; "It is good to be regenerated. We need it. We need to be lifted from a life of sin, but we'll never stand before the judgment bar of God with that carnal thing in our heart and get by." Probably the greatest single tragedy in the life of any Christian, is for him or her to render the positive aspect of holiness null and void in his own life by rejecting the negative aspect of death to the carnal nature. In the following quotation, Rhoda shows us how totally disastrous the carnal nature can be in a Christian's life when it is allowed to remain there. She says:

Unsanctified heart, do you want relief? You'll never -- you'll never stand with that carnal thing in your heart. If I could take you back several months ago -- I was in a meeting in Pennsylvania, and a man came to me and said, "Will you go with us and talk with our daughter? She's in jail."
We went to see that girl the next day. We drove about 700 miles. We went in to see her and spoke to her, prayed and were leaving. Her parents got in the car. They had driven away and I was just getting settled to leave on my next trip. The patrolman came out and said to me, "Will you come in? She wants to talk to you alone."

I went in and he said to me, "The nature of the crime is not to be revealed." I signed the papers. I asked him after he had told me what she had done, if it was safe to be in the room with her alone. And he said, "Well, we'll be watching you at all times, but we won't hear what she says."
I went in to where this girl was. She is a year older than I am. And I saw an entirely different person than what I had seen the first time I was in with her folks. She was just writhing. And she kept saying, "Oh, my carnal nature." And I learned the story.

She said, "Do you know that I was saved when this thing rose up in me?" She said, "Do you know that I have never in all of my life, that I can remember, stolen anything?" She began to name her virtues. She said, "I have been a Sunday School teacher. I was a Sunday School teacher and a saved woman when I committed this crime."

She said, "We had a revival meeting and the Lord dealt with me about my carnal nature -- and I didn't do anything about it, and now here I am three weeks after the meeting." She said, "Oh, it's my carnal nature that caused it. If I had known I would have let the Lord take it out of my heart." She went on and on and on, and I felt like I was standing in the chills of hell.

I said, "Don't you think we could pray?" She said, "It's so dark, there's no use to pray. Oh, it's so black. I think hell would be a relief from this torment I'm having." She went on and on.
She said to me, "As you travel across the country, will you tell young people -- will you tell older people to let God deal with their carnal nature?" And I want you to know that's made an impression on me. It's good to be regenerated. We need it. We need a lifting from a life of sin, but we'll never stand before the judgment bar of God with that carnal thing in our heart and get by.

Oh, I wonder this morning who in this congregation is harboring in your heart that thing. But I want you to know the touch of the Master can cleanse you of it.

If you could hear the young people that cry into my ears as I travel across the land, "I wish I had done differently." And that's young people. "Oh, I wish I had done differently."
And if you could hear the parents say to me, "We're slipping. We're slipping, and we know it, but we can't seem to help ourselves."

Do you want the touch of the Master's Hand? Let's stand.
"But of all the foes we meet, None so oft mislead our feet -- None betray us into sin,
Like the foe that dwells within."

BLJ: If you want the touch of the Master's Hand upon your heart, will you not commit to seek Him earnestly until the second work of grace has been done in your heart?