03—GOD CHASTENS US TO MAKE US HOLY
In Hebrews, the 12th chapter, we are told that God chastens us because He loves us, and He does it for our good, that we might be made partakers of His holiness. May I call your attention especially to the fact that He chastens us because He loves us? He never does it just in
order to satisfy Himself or to make us suffer for our sins. He never does that. Sometimes we do punish our children just in order to relieve our own feelings and to satisfy ourselves. God never does that. He has only one thing in mind, and that is our good. He does not chasten us just to punish us for our past sins, but always with the idea of making us better in the future. His one and only objective is that we might become holy, partakers of His holiness. This is the prime objective that He has in mind.
In fact the great central idea of all God's plan for us is that we might become holy. This is the grand objective both in Providence and in Redemption. He has nothing else in mind for us, and is trying to do nothing else for us, but to make us like unto Himself and partakers of His holy nature and character. Oh, that we might see this great truth!
It is rather strange, the idea that some people have about holiness and the attitude they take toward it. They seem to feel that when a preacher begins to preach on holiness he has jumped the track, or gone off on some side line. They seem to feel that it is a kind of hobby with some men, and that it is an elective course that you can take or leave alone.
However, my dear reader, I want to assure you that is not the case. It is not an elective course. It is not a side issue that can be taken or left alone. It is the main line. The one thing that God has in mind for all of us is that we might be holy.
In Ephesians 1:4 we are told, "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love."
God has commanded us to be holy. 1 Peter 1:16, "Be ye holy; for I am holy."
"This is the will of God, even your sanctification."—1 Thess. 4:3.
"God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth (or rejecteth), despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit."—1 Thess. 4:7-8.
"Jesus suffered without the gate, that he might sanctify us with his own blood"—Hebrews 13:12. Notice that it says with His own blood. It is not by growth or by our own efforts, but it is by His own blood.
"God hath sworn that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, should live before him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life"—Luke 1:73-75.
"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."—Matthew 5:8.
We are also told that without holiness "no man shall see the Lord."— Hebrews 12:14.
There are many other such passages to which we might call your attention, but I think that these will be sufficient for our purpose. We are taught that God purposed that we should be holy. He has commanded us to be holy. He has willed our sanctification. He has called us unto it. Jesus has suffered and died that we might be sanctified. God has sworn that we shall be able to have it and live it even in this present life and all the days of our lives. He has promised that those who have a pure heart shall be blessed and shall be permitted to see God, and He has warned us that we shall not see God unless we are holy. I think that these statements are enough for us to see that holiness of heart and life is the great central idea of the whole plan of salvation. The one thing that God is working at, in both Providence and Redemption, is that each and every child of His shall be made a partaker of His holiness and be conformed to the image of His own Son.
Now I believe that the Bible is clear in its teaching that God is trying to accomplish His plan and purpose for us in two ways. His first and best plan is that we should willingly, of our own volition and choice, make complete surrender of our will and life to Him, and let Him sanctify our hearts by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. This is His first and best choice for us. He had much rather do it this way than any other. He does not like to coerce us and force us to go against our own will and wishes.
However, there are a great many people who are stubborn, and they are not willing to make that kind of surrender. They had rather go on having their own will and way. The Lord tries to lead them to make a complete consecration of their lives, but they refuse and go on living their own way.
Now the Lord loves us too much to let us go our headstrong way and make a wreck of our lives, and sometimes He has to do us as we do our own children. We love our children and do not like to punish them, but sometimes they will not listen to our advice and submit to our wishes and plans. We coax them and admonish them and do all within our power to try to get them to do as we want, but in spite of all our efforts they go on in their headstrong way. Now we love them too much to let them go on in their rebellion; for we realize that, if we do, their lives will be wrecked and ruined, and so we have to take them to task. In other words, we chasten them and punish them for their rebellion. We do that, not because we hate the child and want to punish it, but we do it because we love our child and wish for the best in his life.
That same thing is often true with God and us. He tries to get us to submit and do His will by our own choice, but we are headstrong and rebellious. We want to have our own way. God tries to woo us by love and we refuse to follow. He tries to admonish us and warns us, but we go right on in our rebellion. Finally He realizes that if we are not turned in some way our lives will be wrecked; and so He chastens us. In other words, He takes us to the woodshed. He does not do this because He hates us, or because He takes pleasure in punishing us; but He does it because He loves us too much to let us go on and make shipwreck of our lives.
I firmly believe that many people have made the surrender of their lives and their wills to God in some such hour of trial, when really they should have made it at an altar of prayer. God sometimes has to lay us flat on our back in order to get us to say, "Thy will be done, not mine."
However, it would have been far better to have said it while we were well and strong. There may be someone who will read these lines, that God is dealing with in that way. If so, my dear reader, will you not let sorrow do her perfect work? Why not look up just now and make the surrender of your life to Jesus?
I fear that there have been times when God had to take a little idol out of some mother's arms in order to save her from idolatry. He did not want to do it, but He loved that woman so much that He could not let her life be wrecked. God sometimes has to take men's property from them in order to save them from idolatry. He does it because He loves them. Oh, if we could only make the surrender without having to go through such things! I trust that we may have grace and strength to do it even now. He wants you to be holy and He wants me to be holy. May God help us to want to be all that He would have us to be.
"Would you live for Jesus, and be always pure and good?
Would you walk with Him within the narrow road?
Would you have Him bear your burden, carry all your load?
Let Him have His way with thee."
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