BLJ: We have finished Rev. Fay's book on salvation. He wrote an additional book on entire sanctification. We will spend a few days looking at this subject. As I wrote earlier, I believe only a few in the church are truly saved, and if so, there are even fewer sanctified wholly. Entire sanctification destroys the "old man", i.e. carnality or the carnal mind. When someone is sanctified, you see it in their life, their speech and in their behavior. The sanctified believer is sold out 100% for God. Are you sanctified?
BE SERIOUS
Dale Yocum said it well:
"This is a high tension age. The rapid whirl of activity and the full program of events place a heavy tax upon nerve, muscle and spirit. Moses had to climb up into a crevice before he saw God pass by. God does not usually unveil His face to the man on the go." [1]
The prevailing spirit of our age is exceedingly trite, immoral, worldly and carnal and he who would be godly must stand and press against it. God not only does not respond to the indifferent, trifling, proud and self assured but He positively resists them. "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble" (James 4:6).
"The Bible was written in tears, and to tears it will yield its best treasures. God has nothing to say to the frivolous man." [2]
Perhaps nowhere else in Scripture does one sense a more sincere and serious desire for God than in David's prayer as recorded in Psalm 139:23-24:
"Search me, O God and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."
1. Notice the reasonableness of such a prayer. Earlier in this Psalm, David freely acknowledges God's thorough going understanding of him. All his thoughts in verse 2, his ways in verse 3, and his words in verse 4.
2. Notice also the rightness of his prayer. It is right in its approach to God. Here David pleads, "Search me, O God" (verse 23). God alone knows a man's heart and can reveal to him its true spiritual condition. David also targets the right areas to be searched and known, i.e., his "heart" and "thoughts" which constitute the core of true piety. "For out of it are the issues of life" (Prov. 4:23). Further, David is approaching the Lord with a right attitude in prayer. He prays "search me, know my heart, try me, and know my thoughts." What profound and serious soul searching! This man is intent on knowing his true spiritual state. David wants to know the worst of his condition.
3. Notice the risk of true prayer. "See if there be any wicked way in me" (verse 24). The word "wicked" is rendered in the margin "way of pain, or grief," i.e., some attitude or practice of his past or present. David's bold "if" indicates the possibility of such a revelation. Here David vows, if required, to make a radical admission or adjustment as may surprise or even shock his associates and thereby render him odious in their eyes, but he is desperately serious and will pay even this price to be put into right relationship with God.
4. Notice the resignation in David's prayer. Even the prayer's ending "and lead me in the way" (verse 24). reveals the splendid resignation of a soul intent on true spirituality. This attitude indicates that God will have no problem to lead him. Small wonder then that God called him, "a man after His own heart" (1 Sam. 13:14). Surely David provides a model for all who hunger for the fullness of Christ's blessing.
"Invite even the anguish, if need be, of the most humiliating self exposure, and shrink not from the rod of correction." [3]
Everywhere in Scripture a sincere and serious approach to God is insisted upon. We note a few of these and urge the reader to take the time to ponder each verse.
"But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul" (Deut. 4:29).
"Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God" (1 Chr. 22:19).
"And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul that whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman" (2 Chr. 15:12-13).
"The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand and seek God" (Ps. 14:2).
"Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob" (Ps. 24:3-6).
"When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek" (Ps. 27:8).
"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God" (Ps. 42:1).
"Yea, if thou crieth after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God" (Prov. 2:3-5).
"I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me" (Hos. 5:15).
"Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted" (Matt. 5:4).
"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled" (Matt. 5:6).
"The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached and every man presseth into it" (Luke 16:16).
"Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you will seek to enter in, and shall not be able" (Luke 13:24).
"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it" (Hebrews 4:1).
"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Heb. 11:6).
A genuine believer will manifest a strong desire for heart purity, which one writer calls the "Crown of Justification" and then adds:
this desire is always attached to it:
as weight to lead,
as heat to fire,
as fragrance to the rose,
as green to a healthy leaf,
-- always inseparable. [4]
Each member of the Trinity -- the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost -- continues to prove His undying concern for our sanctification.
No comments:
Post a Comment