A Heartfelt Appeal

BLJ: Dear reader, whether church leader or not, may I appeal to you? I urge you not to neglect the death-route. I beg you not to walk against light. I cry to you to renounce self, die to self and crucify self. Then you are on believing ground, and God will grant you faith to be sanctified wholly!

AN ARDENT APPEAL

O preacher, preacher, preacher -- you who wield an influence over multitudes -- let me beg of you, please do settle forever the "death-route" crucifixion of your own heart. Only then can Christ take over the controls of your life. Only then will you save your soul and them that follow you (I Tim. 4:16). Do not drift on with the great stream of those who at one time had the Holy Ghost, but now are out there in the spiritual wilderness. Many are down to the twilight zone of life and the Holy Ghost has departed from them, and in some cases has been gone for years. Please do not follow those into eternity who failed to get a sanctified (purified) heart, and missed it forever. Do break, once and forever, my friend, from those crafty, manipulating, "usurpers" who have drifted far off the true path, and have left the Holy Ghost and Christ far back on the trail, even though, in many instances, they still profess to be Christians. Let me beg of you to flee from the wrath of God which shall be poured out upon the children of disobedience (Eph. 5:6; Col. 3:6). Let us never become like the hireling preacher (John 10:12-13) and "Smooth down the stubborn text to ears polite; and snugly tuck damnation out of sight." [52]

"Depart, lost soul, thy tears to weep,
Thy never-drying tears;
To sigh the never-ending sigh,
To send up the unheeded cry,
Into the unresponding sky,
Whose silence mocks thy fears."

MILLIONS HAVE MISSED IT

All carnal church members are symbolized by the man who came to the Marriage Supper of Christ without the wedding garment (Matt. 22:11-14). This man identified himself with holy people but he was not holy. Christ ordered him bound hand and foot, and cast into outer darkness, to wail in deep anguish and gnash his teeth in pain. From this account we understand that no carnal person will be allowed at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Therefore, none who profess to be sanctified holy, but yet have sin in their lives, and carnality in their hearts, will qualify for the Rapture.

BLJ: Carnal church member, please don't neglect or worse yet, reject this teaching. Your soul's destiny is at stake.

The fact that no carnal person will be in the Rapture is further verified in I John 3:3, which declares: "And every man that hath this hope in him [the hope of ever being with Christ -- verse 21] purifieth himself, even as he [Christ] is pure."

The only means of God purifying the carnal heart is through the baptism of the Holy Ghost, such as the believers received on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 15:9). Please don't miss it, my friend.

"Self is the only prison that can ever bind the soul; Christ the only [Person] that can the gates unroll. And when He comes to set thee free, arise and follow fast. His way may lie through darkness, but it leads to light at last!"

The carnal enmity of the heart will never become subject to God. It cannot be reasoned with, or coerced, or compelled, or bribed, or restrained, or frightened into total subjection to Christ (Rom. 8:7). It reigns jealously in the very seat and citadel of the soul with its willfulness, stubbornness, hatefulness, contrariness, insubordination, and malice. There is no way for one to walk as Christ walked (I John 2:6), or to be as He is in this world (I John 4:17) or to be conformed unto His image (Rom. 8:29), with that hateful, carnal element in the heart, which will not be wholly subservient unto Christ (Luke 14:33). It is entirely foreign to His very nature! "But as he that has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, be ye holy, For I am holy" (I Peter 1:15-16).

"Choose you this day whom ye will serve" (Joshua 24:15); self or Christ! There is no middle ground. There IS a fence here, but there are no straddlers. One brother well said: "Christ and self cannot both be lifted up at the same time." We must face present death to carnal self or the eternal death of our immortal souls. The choosing is inescapable.

Unless the "Old Man" is dead and buried, Christ can never have first place in our lives. Let the last one of us know that the crucifixion of self becomes a living reality within us, and that the Old Man is dead and buried, and Christ reigns unchallenged in every facet of our lives, for time and for eternity.

Gregory Mantle gives us the ideal pattern for the emptying of self and the filling of our hearts with the Holy Ghost. He wrote:

"Take us, Lord, Oh, take us truly,
Mind and soul, and heart and will!
Empty us and cleanse us thoroughly,
Then with all Thy fullness fill."

A. W. Tozer, a widely known and highly regarded twentieth century writer on the subject of true, experiential Christianity, sounded the depth of the only valid relationship that a human can have with Christ. Tozer asked this searching question: "When will Christians learn...that to accept Christ it is necessary to reject self?" (Convention Herald, January 1982).

"May the mind of Christ my Saviour
Live in me from day to day --
By His love and power controlling
All I do and all I say."

BLJ: Reject yourself and receive the fullness of Jesus Christ.