The Sovereignty of God

Below are some Scriptures on the Sovereignty of God. I could not face the challenges and trials of today or tomorrow without a firm belief in the Sovereignty of God. Too many professing believers think they are in charge, but they are not. God is in charge. That is a comfort. You are not responsible for the results of sharing the gospel. You are not ultimately responsible for anyone's soul. Does that mean that we should avoid evangelism. Of course not!!! It means that we should be more bold in our witnessing because we are not responsible for the results, only to testify of the truth: Christ crucified, Christ buried, and Christ resurrected! He did it for you.

Ephesians 1:11

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will . . .

Romans 8:28

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Matthew 10:29–31

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Colossians 1:16–17

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Isaiah 45:7–9

I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things. “Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I the LORD have created it. Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?

Proverbs 16:33

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.

Job 42:2

“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”

Lamentations 3:37–39

Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?

Acts 4:27–28

For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

Ephesians 1:4

Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

 

 

Matthew Study Nine: The Marriage Supper

 Today's lesson comes from Matthew 22:1-14. In this parable, the King represents God the Father. The son for whom the marriage was made represent Jesus Christ. The bride is the church. The guests who were invited represents those who hear the gospel message. The servant are the ones that bring the gospel to the world. The supper is a reconciliation feast when Christ receives His bride. 

The first section is "The Invitation." This part of the lesson emphasizes the universality of the gospel. I believe that most people will decline to receive the gospel. Jesus said the way was narrow, not broad. That to me speaks of the fact that there will be many who will refuse the good news. This should not deter us from preaching the truth of the gospel to all we can. 

Both Adam Clarke and Matthew Henry in their commentaries teach that the first invitation was to the Jews. God used the prophets to tell of the coming Messiah. When Christ came, the Jews for the most part rejected Him, "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." (John 1:11) God's eternal purpose is to select for Himself a people that will worship and obey Him. Man was made to worship. If man does not worship the LORD, he will find something else to worship, thus, there is so much idolatry today. The invitation is given to all to come to God through Jesus Christ, His Son. While the invitation is given to all, only those who have received grace in their hearts will respond favorably. John Wesley called this preventing grace (we say prevenient grace today).

The second section is "The Message Bearers." The first servants were the prophets and apostles. They brought the invitation. The Jews rejected that invitation and it opened the doors for the Gentiles to enter in. Today, preachers and laymen alike should be bringing the uncompromising message of salvation to all we can. God sends the call to all, yet many will reject that invitation just like the Jews did in Bible times. No sinner is without hope. We should never assume that someone will not answer the call to salvation. 

Thank God they did not all reject the invitation. "The wedding was furnished with guests." "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Matthew 25:34)

The next section is "The Wedding Garment." Revelation 19:7,8 states: "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints." The second work of grace has many names: Baptism with (or in) the Holy Spirit, entire sanctification, rest of faith, holiness, or being Spirit-filled. The point is not the identifying name, but the Bible experience of receiving a pure or clean heart. Without holiness, no person will see the LORD. (Hebrews 12:14 ) This second work of grace, in this life, prepares the soul for the marriage supper of the Lamb in the Kingdom of Glory.

The next section is "The Unprepared Guest." A study of the culture of the day informs us that noble men kept clothing in their wardrobes suitable to attend a marriage. In addition, they would have clothing for accidental guests. The person inviting the guests would have prepared a garment for each one invited. When the guest came in without a wedding garment, it would be seen as disrespectful, arrogant, and presumptuous. Perhaps the guest thought his dress was good enough and didn't want to conform to the wishes of the king. There are several meanings for the parable:

1. Some people may think they are good enough that God will accept them without a relationship with Jesus Christ.

2. A person may be saved but not sanctified thinking that he is good enough keeping his carnal heart. The sad condition in many carnal hearts is that they feel they are good enough without the grace of God who will cleanse and purify the heart. Humanism and the New Age movement lead men to worship themselves. 

The unprepared guest was bound and taken away and cast into outer darkness. Men make all kinds of excuses for their deplorable spiritual condition. Someday, when they stand before the King, they will be speechless, just like the unprepared guest was in the parable. A day of accountablity is set on God's calendar and our name is on the schedule. Will you be prepared or unprepared?

The final section is "Many Called But Few Chosen." God calls men to salvation through the preaching of the Word and by the Holy Spirit. God can call through Providence and circumstanial happenings.  God uses godly people to witness to the lost. Know this, while man has free will, that will will never choose God. Don't believe me, read Romans 3: 10-18. That will describe man's free will. John Wesley called God's working on a person's heart preventing grace (we say prevenient grace today), so that one would respond to the grace of God and surrender to Jesus Christ. 

Many are called to the gospel. However, they fail to meet the simple terms of the gospel to be chosen. They don't really repent and forsake their sins. Today, just as in the parable, people are invited to come to Christ. The gate and way is narrow. The wicked will not enter in. We are to examine our own soul and make sure we are ready for eternity. Everyone will live forever, it is the location that matters. Will you spend eternity in heaven with Jesus Christ and the blessed Trinity, or will you go to a devil's hell to suffer? You are invited to the former, not the latter. To go to hell, you need do nothing more than stay in your sins.

The Golden Text is, "Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner." (Matthew 22:4) The banquet we will experience in heaven is more beautiful and elaborate than the finest dinner prepared for earthly kings and dignitaries. Jesus, has prepared our banquet known as the Marriage Supper. You have been invited, will you be there?

My summary points:

1. God extends an invitation to you to be a part of His Kingdom.

2. As a Christian, we should be message bearers to a lost world.

3. We need holiness to attend the marriage supper.

4. Many are called, but few are chosen.

Next week, "Pharisees." (Matthew 23: 1-15)

Please read the Sunday School Beacon for inspiration and encouragement.

Heart Talks on Holiness Part 10

KNOWING JESUS

What an astonishing thing that we can know Jesus! And yet nothing is more clearly taught in Scripture or more joyously testified to in experience by godly people than this fact.

This is an age of specialists, when men devote their lives to the pursuit of special departments of knowledge. One learned professor will give fourteen hours a day for forty years to the study of fishes, another to the study of birds, another to that of bugs, and yet another to that of old bones. Another, more ambitious, devotes his life to the study of history, the rise and fall of nations, and yet another to astronomy, the origin and history of worlds. But to know Jesus Christ is infinitely better than to know all that has been learned or dreamed of by these professors, for He it was that 'made the worlds,' and 'without Him was not any thing made that was made' (John i. 3).

Personally, I am inclined to think that to know Edison would be worth more than knowing one or all of his works, and so to know Jesus Christ is the first and best of all knowledge. Amen!

The knowledge of the naturalist, the astronomer, the historian, may be of passing value, but in due time it will be antedated and fail. But the knowledge of Jesus Christ is of infinite value, and will never pass away. It is profitable for this world, and for that which is to come, and only by it does a man come to the knowledge of himself; without which it would be better never to have been born.

I. In this knowledge of Jesus is hidden the germ of all knowledge, for Paul tells us that in Him 'are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge' (Col. ii. 3). Am I eager for learning and knowledge? Let me then constantly seek to know Him, and in due time, in this world or in the next, I shall know all that is of value for me to know.

II. In this knowledge lies true culture of both head and heart; especially of the heart. In the words of one of the greatest living Christian philosophers, 'it enlarges the individual life with universal ideas, lifts time into the stream of an eternal purpose, and fills it with eternal issues; and makes the simplest moral act great as a real factor in the evolution of a higher order and an immortal character.' It makes a man patient with the ignorant and erring and wayward, courteous to his equals and superiors, kindly and generous to his inferiors, gentle and considerate in his own home, and to the woman who is now his wife -- as he was to her when she was his sweetheart. It makes him loving and forbearing with children, thoughtful and tender with the aged -- in fact, the knowledge of Jesus (not simply scraps of knowledge about Jesus) makes the possessor in his measure like Jesus. Glory to God!

The essence of this knowledge is love. John says, 'Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love' (I John iv. 7-8). This love is a heavenly thing. The sinner, farthest away -- from God -- loves his own, loves those who love him and do him good. But this love is that which pours itself out upon strangers, upon enemies, and upon those that despitefully use us and say all manner of evil against us. Thus we come to see that to know Jesus, we must be like Jesus, must have an affinity with Him, must be transformed into His image. In other words, we must be born again and sanctified by His indwelling Spirit.

Judas lived with Jesus in the intimacy of a disciple for three years, but if he ever knew Jesus he must have lost that knowledge before he could have gone out to betray Him with a kiss. So we may profess the knowledge of Jesus, but when by wicked tempers and unholy conduct, and deceitful and sinful character, we manifest a spirit contrary to His, we give the lie to our profession. In so far as we are unlike Him, to that extent we are ignorant of Him.

How then shall we come to the knowledge of Jesus?

I. We must utterly and for ever renounce sin, and seek forgiveness for past bad conduct trusting in the merits of His atonement for acceptance with God, singing from our hearts, 'Oh, the Blood, the Blood, is all my plea.' When we do this, we shall come into an initial knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

II. But we must not only renounce our sins; we must also renounce self. In an all-night of prayer, several years ago, I looked at the great audience and queried of the Lord in my heart, 'How can all these people get to Heaven?' and in the depths of my soul sounded back the words, 'He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost.'

And I saw how men get to Heaven, and how they gain the knowledge of Jesus. He gave Himself for us, and we must give ourselves for Him, and trust and obey, and wait expectantly until He comes to our hearts and reveals Himself to our wondering souls; for we only know Him as He reveals Himself to us, and this will He do when we seek Him with all the heart. He surely will.

Paul said, 'But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ' (Phil. iii. 7), by which he referred to his lineage from Abraham, his exact fulfillment of the law, and his zeal for his church and adds, 'Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him . . that I may know Him . . ' (Phil. iii. 8-10).

People who seek this knowledge without this sacrifice of self may flatter themselves that they know Him, but when the testing time comes, the hours of loneliness and loss, and sickness and pain, and disappointment and perplexity, and thwarted hopes and desolation, they will find their sad mistake. The fire will reveal their dross and sin. But to those who make and abide in this sacrifice, and, fighting the good fight of faith, steadfastly and joyously believe, furnace fires and lions' dens and dungeon cells but disclose more fully the loveliness of His face, the certainty of His presence, the unfailing strength and comforts of His love.

III. This knowledge, to be maintained, must be cultivated, which is done by communion with Him. It is possible for a husband and wife to live together for many years, and instead of increasing, except in the most superficial way, in the knowledge of each other, to grow apart, until after many years they are heart strangers to each other, with separate interests, conflicting desires and tempers and alien affinities. To really know each other they must be bound together by stronger ties than mere legal forms; they must commune with each other, live in each other's hearts, enter into each other's joys, and share each other's sorrows, counsel each other in perplexity, seek the same ends and cultivate the same spirit.

And so to know Jesus, there must be sympathy, fellowship, friendship, constantly cultivated. The heart must turn to Him, pour itself out before Him, share its hopes, its joys, its fears with Him, draw its consolations, its strength, its courage, its sufficiency, its life from Him, trust and obey Him and delight itself in Him as its everlasting portion.

Secret prayer must often bring the soul face to face with Him, and the Bible, God's record of Him, must be daily, diligently and lovingly searched, and faithfully applied to the daily life. Thus shall we know Him, and be 'changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord' (2 Cor. iii. 18), and people shall see and feel Christ in us, 'the hope of glory.'

O Jesus, Saviour, how I bless Thee that Thou didst seek me when lost and far from Thee and altogether unlike Thee, and didst woo me, and win me, and lead me to Thyself; and reveal Thyself to me, and make me to know Thee, and ravish my heart, and humble my pride with the joy and love and glory that that best of all knowledge brings! Still reveal Thyself; O Lord, to Thy people, that they may know Thee, and glorify Thee and be satisfied with Thy loving-kindness, and fill the earth with Thy fame!

Heart Talks on Holiness Part 9

TESTIFY TO THE BLESSING

'And they overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony ' (Rev. xii. 11).

A lieutenant got the blessing of a clean heart in one of my meetings the other day, and then told us that he had had the blessing once before but had lost it because he failed to testify to it. The devil suggested that it was a great thing to testify to cleansing from all sin; that people would not understand it; that they would criticize him; that he would do better to live it and say nothing about it; and so on. He heeded these suggestions, kept quiet, and so lost the blessing.

That is an old trick of the devil's, by which he has cheated many a soul out of this pearl of greatest price.

Paul says: 'For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation' (Rom. x. 10). The confession is as necessary as the believing. We insist upon this in the matter of justification and it is equally important in the matter of sanctification. If we do not testify definitely, humbly and constantly to the blessed experience, we put our light under a bushel and it goes out.

The late Miss Frances E. Willard received the blessing definitely, was filled with joy and the sweet peace of Heaven and gave a burning testimony of the fulness of the Spirit. Soon afterwards she became a teacher in a ladies' school in a section of the country where there was much controversy over the doctrine of holiness. She was advised by her mistaken friends to keep still about sanctification, which she did. Years afterwards she sorrowfully wrote: 'I kept still until I soon found I had nothing in particular to keep still about. The experience left me. That sweet persuasiveness, that heaven in the soul of which I came to know in Mrs. Palmer's meeting, I do not now feel.'

Fletcher of Madeley, whom John Wesley believed to be the holiest man that had lived since the days of the Apostle John, made this confession to his people: 'My dear brethren and sisters, God is here, I feel Him in this place; but I would hide my face in the dust, because I have been ashamed to declare what He has done for me. For many years I have grieved His Spirit, but I am deeply humbled and He has again restored my soul. Last Wednesday evening He spoke to me by these words: "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. vi. 11). I obeyed the voice of God; I now obey it, and tell you all to the praise of His love, I am freed from sin, dead unto sin and alive unto God. I received this blessing four or five times before, but I lost it by not obeying the order of God, who has told us, "with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." But the enemy offered his bait under various colors to keep me from a public declaration of what God had wrought. When I first received the grace, Satan made me wait awhile till I saw more of the fruits. I resolved to do so, but I soon began to doubt the witness which before I had felt in my heart, and I was in a little while sensible that I had lost both.

'A second time after receiving this salvation (with shame I confess it) I was kept from being a witness for my Lord by the suggestion, "Thou art a public character; the eyes of all are upon thee; and if; as before, by any means thou lose the blessing, it will be a dishonor to the doctrine of heart holiness." I held my peace, and again forfeited the gift of God.

'At another time I was prevailed upon to hide it by reasoning thus: "How few even of the children of God will receive this testimony! Many of them suppose that every transgression of the Adamic law is sin, and therefore, if I profess myself to be free from sin, all these will give my profession the lie. Because I am not free in their sense, I am not free from ignorance, mistakes and infirmities. I will therefore enjoy what God hath wrought in me, but I will not say I am perfect in love." Alas! I soon found again: "He that hideth his Lord's talent, and improveth it not, from that unprofitable servant shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have."

'Now, my brethren, you see my folly. I have confessed it in your presence, and now I am resolved before you all to confess my Master. I will confess Him to all the world. And I declare unto you in the presence of God the Holy Trinity, I am now dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God, through Jesus Christ, who is my indwelling holiness.'

This confession put Mr. Fletcher on record, and was the beginning of a life of holiness that has but few parallels for beauty and power. It is only at this point of glad, definite testimony that Christian life and experience become irresistibly catching, like fire when it bursts into flame.

Those who profess this blessing are often accused of boasting. But this is not true. They are simply declaring that Jesus has done for them what He died to do -- that is, to save them from sin, and they do it in the spirit of a man who, healed of a deadly disease, declares what the doctor has done for him. It is done to bring honour to the doctor, and to encourage other poor sufferers to apply to him; and to withhold such testimony in the presence of multitudes of needy ones would be a crime.

David said: 'My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof; and be glad' (Ps. xxxiv. 2). Hallelujah!

As for me, I feel I am under a solemn obligation to let everybody know that Jesus is alive and that He can save to the uttermost.

Heart Talks on Holiness Part 8

PAUL A PATTERN

Paul tells us that the Lord Jesus made him 'a pattern to them which should hereafter believe' (I Tim. i. 16). This fact makes his life and experience exceptionally interesting and valuable to us. And it is an especial mark of our Heavenly Father's wisdom and love that He has given us in Paul such a striking example in every particular of the saving power of Jesus. People say Jesus was Divine, and so excuse themselves for their unlikeness to Him, but Paul was human, and if he was like Jesus, so may we be.

Let us study his experience.

I. His sufferings. It is difficult to conceive any form of suffering to which Paul was not subjected; in every instance the grace of Christ was all-sufficient. Here is a catalogue of his sufferings recorded by himself: 'In labors more abundant.' If anyone exceeds him in their labors, it is only because of the improved facilities of later ages for doing more in the same space of time. 'In stripes above measure' -- so many and so often inflicted as to be beyond his computation. 'In prisons more frequent, in deaths oft . . . once was I stoned.' I was stoned once with one brick, and nearly killed, but Paul received many stones, and was dragged out of the city like a beast, and left for dead.

'Thrice I suffered shipwreck.' There have been Salvationist leaders who have suffered shipwreck once, and escaped immediately; but, 'a night and a day I have been in the deep,' says Paul. 'In journeyings often,' under such disagreeable circumstances as we who live in the days of Pullman cars and ocean steamers can scarcely imagine. 'In perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen' -- the Jews, who hated him bitterly, and sought his life in every city. 'In perils by the heathen' -- whom he sought to save through the knowledge of Jesus, but who clung to their idols. 'In perils in the City' -- by wild, mad mobs. In perils in the wilderness' -- from ferocious beasts and yet more ferocious men. 'In perils in the sea' -- from drowning and from monsters of the deep.

'In perils among false brethren' -- to whom he would naturally look for help and sympathy. 'In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches' (2 Cor. xi. 23-28) which were organized from Jewish and heathen converts, and were bitterly opposed by the idolatrous heathen on the one side, and the bigoted Jews on the other, and which must have been far more difficult to properly organize, train and manage, than any Salvation Army corps. Nor could he look forward to brighter days, when circumstances would be more favorable, and life more free from pain and care, for he says, 'the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me' (Acts. xx. 23).

II. His faith in God and love for man. And yet, in spite of all these afflictions and physical sufferings and bitter persecutions, he maintained a joyful faith in God and a tender, self-sacrificing love for all men. And when God the Holy Ghost testifies there will be no 'let up' to his stupendous trials, he cries out, 'But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself (Acts xx. 24). 'I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake' (2 Cor. xii. 10). And in face of all these things he asks, 'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?' And though he adds, 'we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter,' yet, 'in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord' (Rom. viii. 35-39). And at the last, almost in sight of the block and axe, where his multitudinous sufferings were to be crowned by a martyr's death, he exclaimed, 'I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith' (2 Tim. iv. 7).

Just as his faith in his Lord was not in the least hindered or destroyed by his sufferings, so also was his love for his fellow men untouched by them. He says of the Jews, who were his perpetual and bitter enemies, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: who are Israelites' (Rom. ix. I -4). This is perfect love. It is love that 'suffereth long, and is kind.' It is love like that of the Lord Jesus Himself.

Then again, in writing to his corps in Corinth, many of whom seemed to have gone wrong, and to have made many unjust and contemptuous criticisms of Paul himself he says, 'I seek not yours but you: . . . and I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved' (2 Cor. xii. 14-15). Many floods could not quench his love nor drown his faith.

III. The secret. The secret of Paul's marvelous endurance, his quenchless faith and burning love is found in his testimony, 'I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision' (Acts xxvi. 19).

Away back in the days when he was a persecutor and was scattering the little flock of Christ, and driving them to death, Jesus met him -- met him just as He meets men to-day, showed him a 'strait gate' and a 'narrow way,' and Paul was 'not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.' Obedience meant social ostracism, banishment from home and friends, the overturning of all his plans and ambitions, a life of toil and shame and suffering, the loss of all things and the sacrifice of his life; yet he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. And, maintaining this obedient spirit to the end, everything else followed. The reason why so few have an experience like Paul's is because so few count the cost as he did, and obey the heavenly vision Jesus gives them.

Several years ago a bright young girl of eighteen, full of fun and love of society, was induced by a friend to enter an Army meeting for the first time. No sooner had she entered than the faces of the soldiers enchained her eyes, and their testimonies went to her heart. She sat for a while, and Jesus came to her, not in visible presence, or with audible voice, but in a spiritual vision. She left the meeting convicted of sin. On her way home the vision spoke with her, 'You ought to have got saved to-night,' But I am engaged for that dance next Wednesday night.' 'You should give up the dance.' 'But there are my lovely white dress and slippers. I will get saved after the dance.' 'But you may die before Wednesday night, and lose your lovely dress and the dance and your soul.' That was sufficient for this young girl. She tore the feathers from her hat, and threw them into the fire. She rushed upstairs, got her lovely white dress, cut it up and cast it into the fire.

The next evening she went to the meeting. At last a sister, probably discerning in her face the hunger of her heart, went to her and asked, 'Don't you want to get saved to-night?' 'Of course I do,' replied the girl; 'why did you not come to me before?' and immediately she rushed to the Penitent-form, where, in obedience to the heavenly vision, she found Jesus almighty to save. And after four years her face shines with the glory of her Lord, and her voice rings with triumph as she testifies to the cleansing power of His Blood and the sanctifying power and presence of His Spirit. She was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

A man, a millionaire, came into a meeting and listened to an Army Captain, and the heavenly vision came to him, and he saw the Cross, and the 'strait gate,' and the 'narrow way,' and like the rich young man who came to Jesus, he went away, saying, 'If it were not for the red stripes round that fellow's collar I would have gone forward,' He was disobedient to the heavenly vision.

Sooner or later the heavenly vision comes to all men. It comes in the whisperings of conscience, in the strivings of the Spirit, in the calls of duty, in the moments of regret for an evil past, in moments of tenderness and sorrow, in the crises of life, in the entreaties of God's people. It comes in afflictions and losses, in the thunders of the law, in fearful, ominous threatenings of eternal judgment, in the death of loved ones, in crushed hopes, disappointed plans and thwarted ambitions. In all these things Jesus hides Himself as He hid Himself in the burning bush, which Moses saw on Horeb. If men would but turn aside and heed the vision as Moses did, a voice would speak and cause them to know the Lord, and if they would not be disobedient to the heavenly vision, Jesus would turn them back from the pit, and satisfy every questioning of their minds and every longing of their hearts. God so satisfied the heart and mind of Paul.

Some people imagine that Paul tells his best religious experience in Romans vii. 24, when he cries out, 'O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' But the fact is, he is here describing his condition under the law, when, as a convicted sinner, the law showed him what he ought to do, but brought no power to deliver him from his guilty past and the corruptions of his own heart. However, in the eighth chapter he finds the secret of deliverance from the condemnation of the past and the Carnal mind, which prevent his doing the will of God on earth as the angels do it in heaven.

From that point he rises to such marvelous testimonies as, 'I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live -- I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me' (Gal. ii. 20). And through a consecration in which he counted all things loss for Christ and a faith by which he reckoned himself 'dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord' (Rom. vi. I t), he entered into an experience in which, as one has well said, he was 'free from a repining temper, for he had learned in every state therewith to be content. He was free from vanity, pride, and unsanctified ambitions, for he gloried only in the Cross of Christ. He was free from every feeling of resentment, for he was ready to die accursed by his enemies. He was free from selfishness, for he was ready to spend and be spent for those whose love diminished for him in proportion as his love abounded for them. He was free from covetousness, for he counted all things but dung and dross for Christ. He was free from unbelief, for he knew in Whom he had trusted, and was persuaded that nothing could separate him from the love of Christ. He was free from the fear of man, for stripes, imprisonment and martyrdom had no terrors -- being ready to be offered up. He was free from the love of the world having a desire to depart and to be with Christ. The absence of these corruptions implied the maturity of the graces of the Holy Spirit -- the fulness of love. Indeed, it was that love which constrained him, which cast out fear, and counteracted every tendency opposed to its hallowing influence.'

What a great salvation was this that Paul found through obeying the heavenly vision! It is ten million leagues beyond the poor little salvation from wrongdoing which most people seek in order to escape hell. It is a salvation not only from sin, but from self; a divine union with God in Christ, so intimate and so sacred that father and mother and wife and brother and sister and child, yea, and his own life, are all shut outside. And yet it does not make him nerveless, and lead him to 'sing himself away to everlasting bliss,' but rather to lavish his love upon all men regardless of their hatred or affection, and to pour his life out, a sacrifice for the world. Well might he say, 'Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ' (I Cor. xi. 1).

And by the grace of God I will follow.

Will you?

Heart Talks on Holiness Part 7

HOLINESS BEFORE THE FLOOD; OR, DO YOU WALK WITH GOD?

'And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: and Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him (Gen. 23, 24).

A remarkable biography! Nowadays men write hundreds of pages about their heroes, and do not say as much as that. But there is a good reason. There is not so much as that to say.

Enoch was a mighty man, with a wonderful life, lived under very unfavorable circumstances, and I have profited much by meditating upon his life, and what I think must have been his secret.

We are prone to look upon past ages and distant places as peculiarly favorable to godliness. I remember that years ago I thought if I could go to London and listen to Chas. Spurgeon each week, I could be a Christian. In my boyhood I wished that I had lived in the days of Jesus, and heard His wondrous words, and questioned Him about the mysteries of godliness, for then I could certainly have been His true follower. Usually the further back we go, the more godly seems the age, and the more blessed seem the men.

But really this is not so, and especially is it not so of Enoch's age and place. The age was most ungodly, and men had very little religious light. The world was fast hastening to that dreadfulness of sin and unbelief which would cause God to sweep away its people by the deluge and leave but eight persons in it. They had no Bible. They had no law. Men had not yet had a Divine revelation from Heaven, telling them they must worship God, must keep the Sabbath day, must honor their parents, must not kill, commit adultery, steal, lie, or covet. Try to imagine an age and place with no such teaching as that! Every man a law unto himself, his evil passions and lusts and tempers having no restraint put upon them, and he plunging continually deeper and deeper into sin and corruption.

Then they had no Gospel, with Jesus revealed as a loving Savior; they had only one promise of hope and mercy, and that rather vague -- the one given to the woman after that awful fall in Eden, the promise of the Seed that sometime would come to bruise the Serpent's head. It was a black night, with only one lone dim star shining in the darkness. But Enoch held on to that promise, and in its light and hope he walked with God for three hundred years.

We have a whole Bible, a finished revelation. We have the holy, just, good law of God, showing us what we ought to do and what we ought not to do. We have the Gospel, with its full noonday light, showing us how to keep the law, how to get life and power to fulfill the will of God on earth as the angels do it in Heaven. We have Jesus, crucified before our eyes for our sins, dead, buried and raised to glorious life again for our justification, and ascended on high to the right hand of God, far above all created things and all opposing powers of evil, to intercede for us, to pour out the Holy Ghost upon us in rich measure, to live in us through the Spirit. We have commandments, precepts and thousands of promises. Instead of a midnight, with one lone, dim star shining fitfully in the darkness, we have a midday, with all the splendor of the sun in his strength, together with ten thousand reflected lights, shining upon us; and yet we, in our trembling, pitiful, shameful unbelief, wonder however Enoch could walk with God!

I. I imagine that Enoch made up his mind that it was possible to walk with God; that is, to be agreed with God, to be of the same mind and heart and purpose as God. Of course, there were stupendous difficulties in the way. There were no churches or Salvation Army or Sunday-schools; there were no holiness conventions; no days with God and nights of prayer; no Bible, no War Cry, no religious papers and libraries. In fact, instead of these helps to walk with God, he found the whole community against him -- yea, the whole world, for in Jude we read that Enoch had to prophesy against the ungodliness he found around him.

Then, not only did Enoch have these extraordinary difficulties to face, but he had all the ordinary difficulties as well. He got married and had a large family of boys and girls to care for; he had all the anxiety of a father to provide for his family and to protect them from the influences all about them. Then, I cannot imagine that he did not have the ordinary infirmities and the sinful nature of other men. No doubt he might have said, as you and I have said, that his temperament was peculiar, and that while others with a happier temperament might be able to walk with God, yet, with his peculiarly crooked and difficult make-up, it was quite out of the question for him to hope to be holy and walk with God. Then, of course, he had the devil to fight.

II. I think that Enoch not only believed in the possibility of walking with God, but he made up his mind that he would walk with God. He put his will into this matter.

III. Not only did Enoch believe in the possibility of walking with God, and determine that as for him he would walk with God, but he took such steps as were necessary to do so. He separated himself in spirit from the ungodly people about him, and he raised his voice against their evil ways, and became not only a negatively righteous man, but a positively holy man.

Enoch had his reward. It paid him to walk with God. He loved God and God loved him, and their affection became so intense that one day God's love overcame the power of death, and drew Enoch from earth to Heaven.

Now, I suppose that most people, in reading the story, think that Enoch's reward consisted in getting to Heaven without dying. Well, this was certainly a most unusual and blessed experience, and one I suppose that men have wished for all through the ages. There is something about death that is awful, and from which men shrink, and yet, since Jesus has died and gone down into the grave and risen again, the terror is lost, to the Christian. Still, it is probable that if allowed to choose, most Christians and all sinners would say, 'Let us go to Heaven like Enoch did.' But I cannot consider this Enoch's chief reward.

For three hundred years God was his Friend, his Counselor, his Comforter, his Constant Companion. Oh, what fellowship was that! What an opportunity to gain wisdom, to build up and round out and ennoble a man's Character! How easy to be good and do good! How life must have almost burst with fullness of gladness! Walking with God! Talking with God! Communing with God! Having mutual sympathy with God entering into a union with God as intimate as the union of the bay with the sea; and all this by faith, by simple trust, by childlike confidence. This was Enoch's reward and it may be yours, my brother, my sister, if you will meet the conditions as Enoch did.

Heart Talks on Holiness Part 6

HOW TO KEEP A CLEAN HEART

It is possible to lose the blessing of a clean heart, but, thank God, it is also gloriously possible to keep it. How to do this is a vital question. Two or three years ago, a brother, going to the foreign field, arose in one of my meetings and said, 'I got the blessing three times but lost it twice. The third time I got it the Lord taught me how to keep it through this text "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in Him"' (Col. ii. 6).

That is one of the simplest and completest statements of how to keep the blessing that can be given. The conditions of getting it are the conditions of keeping it.

I. To keep it, there must be continued joyful and perfect consecration. We have put all on the altar to get it. We must leave all on the altar to keep it. 'All the tithes' must be brought into God's house. We must present our bodies to Him as 'a living sacrifice,' recognizing ourselves as no longer our own, but His, by the purchase of His Blood, and ourselves as stewards only of all that is ours. Our health and strength, our time and talent, our money and influence, our body, mind, and spirit, all, all are His, to be used for His glory as fully as the fondest bride would use her all in the interest of her husband. And this consecration must keep pace with increasing light. The journey of life is not always through grassy lawns and flowery gardens, but often over burning, shifting, sandy deserts, rocky steeps, fetid swamps, and dark and tangled jungles, as the Lord leads the soul in ways it has not known. And at such times self-interest may cry out against the sacrifice. But if the consecration be perfect, and grounded in love, there will be no turning back, no plunging into seductive and easy by-paths, but a steady marching forward, if needs be to Gethsemane's lonely agony, Pilate's judgment hall of shame, and Golgotha's dark and awful hour. But. thank God, it will not be alone for He says, 'My presence shall go with thee.' (Exod. xxxiii. 14). Hallelujah!

II. To keep the blessing, there must be steadfast, childlike faith. It took faith unmixed with doubt to grasp the blessing. Unbelief was banished. Doubts were put away. The assurance of God's love in Jesus was heartily believed. His ability and willingness to save to the uttermost was fully accepted, and His word simply trusted when the blessing was received; and, of course, this same faith must be maintained in order to keep it. God cannot require less of the sanctified man to keep the blessing than He did of the unsanctified man to get it. Peter said, 'Who are kept by the power of God through faith' (I Pet. i. 5). Notice it is 'the power of God that keeps us, but it is faith that links us on to the power as the coupling links the railway carriage to the locomotive. Faith is the coupling. Paul said of himself, 'the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God' (Gal. ii. 20). And again he tells us that the Jews were cut off through unbelief, and that we stand by faith.

We may suffer prolonged trials, great perplexities, and fierce temptations -- they are a part of the discipline of life-but we must

Keep on believing, Jesus is near,

Keep on believing, there's nothing to fear:

Keep on believing, this is the way,

Faith in the night as well as the day.

III. To keep the blessing, we must pray to and commune much with the Lord. We pray when we talk to God and ask Him for things. We commune, with Him when we, are still and listen and let God talk to us, and mold us, and show us His love and His will, and teach us in the way He would have us go. We should pray often and not be in too great a hurry, but 'take time to be holy' take time to 'taste and see that the Lord is good,' and to hear what He will say. And this we should do, if possible, in the morning, that we may be strengthened and nourished and gladdened for the day. Backsliding usually begins through neglected, or hurried, secret prayer.

Someone has said, 'Stay with God in prayer, stay till He melts you, and then stay when you are melted and plead with God, and He will answer, and you will get changed and transformed and renewed, and you will do execution.'

IV. To keep the blessing, we must give diligent attention to the Bible. The soul needs the food of truth, and Jesus said, 'Man shall not live, by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.' (Matt. iv. 4) God commanded Joshua saying, 'This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night.' What for? 'That thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein.' And what shall follow? 'For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good success.' (Josh. i. 8). Then thou shalt keep the blessing.

David said of his blessed man, 'His delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night.' (Ps. i. 2). And Paul tells us that the Scriptures are 'profitable for doctrine, for reproof for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished to all good works' (2 Tim. iii. 16-17). And Peter says, 'as new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby' (I Pet. ii. 2). Some professors are smaller ten years after birth than when they were born, because they have not fed on God's word. Catherine Booth read the Bible through several times before she was twelve years old, and grew thereby, until it is not to be wondered at that she became a 'mother of nations.' I once gave a talk on the use of the Bible to my Soldiers, and some of them caught the inspiration, and carried their Bibles in their pockets after that and spent all the spare time they had in reading and praying, and we could fairly see them grow, until they became powers for God, and some of them are spiritual giants to this day.

V. To keep the blessing, we must confess it be aggressive, and seek to get others into it. 'For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation' (Rom. x. 10). The man who withholds his testimony to this grace will lose it. This light, hid under a bushel, will go out. God gives it to us that we may put it on a candle-stick and give light to all that are in the house, in the corps, in the community, in the nation. Don't limit the power of testimony by unbelief. A torch loses no light and heat by lighting a thousand other torches.

Touch a piece of steel with a magnet, and it in turn becomes a magnet. It can then be used to turn ten thousand other pieces into magnets with no loss, but rather with increase of power to itself. But hang it up in idleness, and it gradually loses its power. So with us, my comrades. Let the Holy Ghost touch us with cleansing power, and we become divine magnets, and in touching other souls we will quicken them and get added power and clearness of experience to ourselves. But let us withhold our testimony, and we lose our power and, like Samson, soon find ourselves 'as other men.'

Testify, testify, testify -- clearly, definitely, constantly, courageously, humbly -- if you would keep the blessing. When faith is weak and devils all around, definite testimony scatters the devils, strengthens faith and stirs up and brightens the inward witness. Testify to the Lord, tell Him you have the blessing and thank Him for it. Testify to your comrades. Testify to your own heart and to the devil. John tells us that the white-robed multitude in Heaven overcame by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. So testify, if you would overcome and keep the blessing.

VI. To keep the blessing, we must constantly live in the spirit of self-denial. By yielding to fleshly desires, to selfish ambitions, to the spirit of the world, we may lose the labor of years in an instant. The hard hand of the old enemy is ever stretched forth to snatch from us our treasure. We must watch and pray, and keep low at Jesus' feet in profoundest humility, if we would keep it. It is all summed up in one word, 'walk in the spirit,' 'walk in love.'

Finally, there, must be no resting in present attainments. The Lord has clearer revelations of Himself for us. We may be filled to the limit of our capacity to-day, but we should ever pray, 'Oh, Lord, enlarge the vessel,' and this we should expect. Like Paul, 'forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,' we should 'press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,' (Phil. iii. 13-14), ever remembering that He 'is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think' (Eph. iii. 20). Not according to some mysterious power to which we are strangers, but 'according to the power that worketh in us,' the power of the Holy Ghost that converted us and made us His 'dear children.' Hallelujah!

Heart Talks on Holiness Part 5

THE OUTCOME OF A CLEAN HEART

David prayed, 'Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. . . . Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; and uphold me with Thy free Spirit. Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto Thee' (Ps. li. 10, 12, 13). He recognized that the blessing of a clean heart would give him wisdom and power and the spirit to teach sinners, and to so teach them that they would be converted. It is the same truth that Jesus expressed when He said, 'First cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye' (Matt. vii. 5). The beam is inbred sin; the mote is the transgressions that result from inbred sin. The following are some of the results of a clean heart:

I. A clean heart filled with the Spirit makes a soul-winner out of the man who receives the blessing. It was so on the day of Pentecost, when the disciples, having their hearts purified by fire and filled with the Holy Spirit, won three thousand souls to the Lord in one meeting. With the blessing of a clean heart comes a passion of love for Jesus, and with it a passionate desire for the salvation and sanctification of men. It makes apostles, prophets, martyrs, missionaries, and fiery-hearted soul-winners. It opens wide and clear the channel of communion between God and the soul, so that His power, the power of the Holy Ghost, works through him who has a clean heart, surely convicting and graciously converting and sanctifying souls.

II. The blessing results in a constancy of spirit. The soul finds its perfect balance in God. Fickleness of feeling, uncertainty of temper, and waywardness of desire are gone, and the soul is buoyed up by steadiness and certainty. It no longer has to be braced up by vows and pledges and resolutions, but moves forward naturally, with quietness and assurance.

III. There is perfect peace. The warring element within is cast out, the fear of backsliding is gone, self no longer struggles for supremacy, for Jesus has become all and in all, and that word in Isaiah is fulfilled, 'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee' (Isa. xxvi. 3), and the soul is made possessor of 'the peace of God, which passeth all understanding' (Phil. iv. 7)

The soul had 'peace with God' -- that is, a cessation of rebellion and strife -- when converted, but now it has the 'peace of God,' as the bay has the fullness of the sea. Anxiety about the future, and worry about the present and past go. It took perfect faith to get a clean heart, and perfect faith destroys fret and worry. They cannot abide in the same heart. Said a saint, 'I cannot trust and worry at the same time.' John Wesley said, 'I would as soon swear as fret.'

IV. Joy is perfected. There may be sorrow and heaviness on account of manifold temptations, there may be great trials and perplexities, but the joy of the Lord, which is his strength, flows and throbs through the heart of him who is sanctified like a great Gulf Stream in an unbroken current. God becomes his joy. David knew this when he said, 'Then will I go . . . unto God my exceeding joy' (Ps. xliii. 4).

Probably not all who have the blessing of a clean heart realize this full joy, but they may, if they will take time to commune with God and appropriate the promises to themselves. Jesus said, 'Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full' (John xvi. 24.) And John said, 'These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full' (I John i. 4). And again Jesus said, 'I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you' (John xvi. 22).

This joy could not be beaten out of Paul and Silas with many stripes, but bubbled up and overflowed at the midnight hour in the dark dungeon, when their feet were in the stocks and their backs were bruised and torn. It turned Madame Guyon's cell into a palace, and Bedford Jail into an ante-room of Beulah Land and Heaven, from which the saintly tinker saw the Delectable Mountains and the Citizens of the Celestial City. Glory to God! It makes a death-bed 'soft as downy pillows are.'

V. Love is made perfect. To be born of God is to have Divine love planted in the heart. 'Like begets like,' and when we are born of God we are made partakers of His nature. And 'God is love.' But this love is comparatively feeble in the new convert, and there is much remaining corruption in the heart to check and hinder, if not to destroy it; but when the heart is cleansed, all conflicting elements are destroyed and cast out, and the heart is filled with patient, humble, holy, flaming love. Love is made perfect. It flames upwards towards God, and spreads abroad toward all men. It abides in the heart, not necessarily as a constantly overflowing emotion, but always as an unfailing principle of action, which may burst into emotion at any time. It may suffer, being abused and ill-treated, but it 'is kind.' Others may be promoted and advanced beyond it, but it 'envieth not.' It may be subjected to pressure of all kinds, but it vaunteth not itself.' It is not rash. It may prosper, but it 'is not puffed up.' Love 'doth not behave itself unseemly,' or, as John Wesley said, 'is not ill-bred.'

Love 'seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil,' is not suspicious. Love 'rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.' An evangelist was abused: his enemies were professing Christians, but 'they backslid. His friends rejoiced, but he grieved. His heart was full of love, and he could not rejoice in the triumph of iniquity even over his enemies. Love 'beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.' Love 'never faileth' (I Cor. xiii. 4-8).

VI. The Bible becomes a new book. It becomes self-interpreting. God is in it speaking to the soul. I do not mean by this that all the types and prophecies are made plain to the unlearned man, but all that is necessary to salvation he finds and feeds upon in the Bible. He now understands the word of Jesus, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God' (Matt. iv. 4). Like Job he can say: 'I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food ' (Job xxiii. 12) and like David, rejoices in it 'as one that findeth great spoil' (Ps. cxix. 162). Like the blessed man, he meditates therein day and night, that he may observe to do according to all that is written therein, that his profiting may appear to all.

VII. It begets the shepherd spirit, and destroys the spirit of lordship over God's heritage. Peter was not like many that have followed him, for instead of lording it over the flock, he wrote, 'The elders which are among you I exhort, who am . . . a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock' (i Pet. v.1-3). If the cleansed man is a superior, it makes him patient and considerate; if a subordinate, willing and obedient. It is the fruitful root of courtesy, of pity, of compassion and of utterly unselfish devotion. 'The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep ' (John x. II).

VIII. Temptation is quickly recognized as such, and is easily overcome through steadfast faith in Jesus. The holy man takes the shield of faith, and with it quenches all the fiery darts of the enemy.

IX. Divine courage possesses the heart. The sanctified man sings with David, 'I will not fear: what can man do unto me?', (Ps. cxviii. 6). 'Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear' (Ps. xxvii. 3). And with Paul, 'I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me' (Phil. iv. '3)' for 'we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us' (Rom. viii. 37).

X. There is a keener sense than ever before of the weakness of the flesh, the absolute inability of man to help us, and of our own utter dependence on God for all things. The pure heart sings evermore, 'The Blood, the Blood -- is all my plea.'

XI. The cleansed man makes a covenant with his eyes, and is careful which way and how he looks. He also remembers the words of Jesus, 'Take heed therefore how ye hear' (Luke viii. 18), and again, 'Take heed what ye hear' (Mark iv. 24). Likewise he bridles his tongue and seasons his words with salt, not with sugar; salt is better than sugar for seasoning, but it is only for seasoning. He remembers: 'That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment' (Matt. xii. 36). He does not despise the day of small things, and he can content himself with mean things. Finally, he realizes

That the common deeds of the common day

Are ringing bells in the far-away,

and he lives as seeing Him who is invisible,' and with glad humility and whole-hearted fidelity discharges his duty with an eye single to the glory of God, without any itching desire for the honor that man can give, or other reward than the ' well done' of the Lord.

Matthew Study Eight: Forgiveness

Today's lesson comes from Matthew 18:21-35. This is another parable regarding the kingdom of heaven. This time the subject is forgiveness. There are three main characters in the parable. The unforgiving servant was delivered unto the "tormentors." Notice the solemn warning in verse 35. The person who harbors an unforgiving spirit will be cast out of the kingdom of heaven. 

In verses 21 and 22 there is a discussion between Peter and Jesus concerning forgiveness. The Jews believed that they never had to forgive more than there times. So when Peter suggests seven times, he would most likely feel confident that Jesus would approve of his answer. However, Jesus states seventy times seven. That number seems difficult to comprehend. Surely, no one would need forgiveness to that extent. Jesus could well be telling us that we should never be without a forgiving heart. 

The first section is "The Compassionate King." vv. 23-27 In this lesson the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a certain king who would take account of his servants. Verses 24 and 25 tell of a servant who owed a large debt. It was an "immense sum." Verse 25 informs us that he could not pay the debt. As a result, his wife, children, etc. would be sold so the debt could be paid. In the same way, every sinner owes a debt that he cannot pay. The only remedy is forgiveness and a pardon from a merciful Savior. 

In verse 26, "The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him." We see humility and brokenness. Psalm 51:17 reads: "A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." Also, Psalm 34:18 states: "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." The commentator Adam Clarke gives four truths relative to a sinner getting saved:

1. Deep humiliation of heart.

2. Fervent prayer.

3. Confidence in the mercy of God.

4. A firm purpose to devote his soul and body to his Maker.

The king is compassionate. He was "moved with compassion." The king "loosed him, and forgave him the debt." The immense debt was forgiven and the man set free. All guilt and condemnation were gone. He felt a sudden transition from darkness to light, from guilt and oppressing fear to confidence and peace. This is the same feeling the person has when he finds the grace of salvation. Guilt and condemnation are removed. We can still find mercy and forgiveness if we come to the Savior. 

The second section is "The Unforgiving Servant." vv. 28-30 In these verses, we see that the person forgiven in verses 23-27 goes and finds someone that owes him a very small amount of money. When he finds him, he demands payment. The debtor begged for forgiveness, but the servant refused to be merciful and cast him into prison. This is an example of a carnal heart. Adam Clarke says that revenge is natural to man, i.e. man is naturally a vindictive being and thus difficult to forgive. 

I have seen several occasions of people seeking something from God, but they had unforgiveness in their heart. That unforgiveness will keep you from getting saved, getting sanctified, getting healed, or receiving anything from God except judgment. Not only are the Scriptures clear on our duty to forgive, we see our Lord Jesus Christ as an example as He forgave people from the cross, "Father, forgive them." When being stoned, Stephen said in a loud voice, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." Romans 12:19 states: "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord."

I can testify to several occasions when someone came against me personally. They spoke evil of me and it cost me a lot of money and business opportunities. I did not fight back or seek to be vindictive. I forgave them. One man was an attorney and the other a powerful real estate broker. Through no effort of my own, the attorney lost his law license and is no longer an attorney. The real estate broker lost his license and served time in prison. My point is that I caused neither of these events. I did not ask God for vengeance. I simply forgave and went about my life. Were the events connected? I don't know, but the principle is clear, don't the an unforgiving servant.

The third section is "The Punishment Meted Out." vv. 31-34. In these verses, we see that the lord found out about the unforgiving acts of the servant. Be sure that your sin will find you out! In addition to being compassionate, the king was just. Since God is holy, He is always angry at sin. The king delivers the wicked servant to the tormentors to hold him until the debt is paid. Notice that they were tormentors not executioners. They would not kill the servant but keep him alive while bringing severe discipline to him. Also, notice since the man would be in jail he would not be allowed to work to earn money. This was in effect a life sentence without parole. He would be kept until he was willing to forgive others. 

The fourth section is "The Warning to Be Heeded." v. 35 Notice the phrase, "my Heavenly Father." Each one of us must be prepared to give an account to God at the judgment. We need to live in a state of continual forgiveness towards others. If we don't forgive others, neither shall our Heavenly Father forgive us. 

The Golden Text is, "Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt." This is how we are to forgive others. First, we are to be compassionate towards those who have injured us. Second, we are to help loose the bonds of the one who has hurt us. Finally, we forgive the entire debt, not just a portion. 

My summary points:

1. Our LORD is compassionate and willing to forgive when we humbly come before Him in repentance. 

2. We must not forget what God in His mercy has forgiven us.

3. A failure to forgive will result in being tormented.

4. We will face a day of judgment.

Next week, "The Marriage Supper." (Matthew 22:1-14)

Please read the Sunday School Beacon for inspiration and encouragement.

Heart Talks on Holiness Part 4

HINDRANCES TO HOLINESS

God has provided a salvation for us that is perfect in every particular, and that satisfies both the heart and the mind. It makes its possessor 'more than conqueror' over the world, the flesh and the devil, and enables him to do the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven. It is altogether worthy of its Author. It is a 'great salvation.' It is not a mere set of beliefs, nor a poor pitiful little profession, but a full, joyous, super-abounding, all-conquering life. Glory to God! This is the more abundant life. Jesus said: 'I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly' (John x. 10). Praise the Lord, this life is mine, and has been for fifteen years.

And now, for the sake of those who have not obtained this crowning blessing, I wish to point out some of the hindrances to its reception and the reason why so few comparatively, have it.

1. Many are ignorant of it. Vast multitudes of professing Christians have never heard of a second work of the Holy Spirit that purifies the heart and perfects it in live. It is strange to say, an unpopular theme and is not much spoken of outside Salvation Army Holiness Meetings, and so God could say today, as He did of old, 'My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge' (Hos. iv. 6). But this ignorance is due, not altogether to the fact that it is a subject little spoken about, but also because so few people go to God's Word for their standard of life and experience. It is all written out there so plain that a fool need not err; but most professors of religion prefer to take their standard from the people round about them rather than from God's Book. Paul says of such folks; 'But they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise' (2 Cor. x. 12). And they never will be wise, unless they cease looking at poor, perishing men and look to Jesus only. Wisdom is from above, and must be sought from God Himself and from the study of His word, and not from the conduct of the people about us.

II. Unbelief. Many are familiar with the Word of God, but they have not an appropriating faith. They read the exceeding great and precious promises, but it never occurs to them that on the fulfillment of the conditions they can have and will have the things promised. It is said of these people: 'But the word preached did not profit them. not being mixed with faith in them that heard it' (Heb. iv. 2). Instead of crying to God to bring their experience up to the standard of the Bible, they explain the Bible down to the level of their experience, and so never receive the glorious revelation of Jesus to their hearts and the fullness of grace therein promised.

III. Some, seek the wrong thing. They expect the blessing of full salvation to bring deliverance from temptations, infirmities, natural consequences of broken laws and the like. I once heard an educated minister pray, 'Lord save us from our impurities and infirmities.' My heart said 'Amen' to the first part, but not to the latter. Full salvation delivers always from impurity, but not always from infirmities in this world. God uses our infirmities to bless us. Paul gloried in his infirmities because, through them, the power of Christ rested upon him (2 Cor. xii. 9-10). We read also that Jesus was 'touched with the feeling of our infirmities' (Heb. iv. 15).

Infirmities and temptations are incorporated by our Heavenly Father into His educational and disciplinary for us, and are for our highest good and we need not expect to be entirely free from them while we are in the body If we were free from them we could not enter into the fellowship of the sufferings of Jesus, nor sympathize with our brethren, and that would be an immeasurable loss to us. It is because Jesus was tempted in all points as we are, and was touched with the feeling of our infirmities, that He is able to sympathize with and succor us when we are tempted (Heb. ii. 18). And it is only as we enter into the common temptations and trials and are afflicted with the common infirmities of humanity, that we can be touched with tender sympathy for, and be largely used in blessing, humanity. Thus, we should not seek for an experience that will save us from these things, but rather should do as we are told, and 'count it all joy' when we 'fall into divers temptations' (Jas. i. 2).

Nor does this experience of full salvation save us from the natural consequences of broken laws. A man may be enjoying the fullness of God's salvation but if he ignorantly break the laws of finance or health he may expect to go into bankruptcy or lose his health as surely as the vilest sinner. And this does not argue at all at his Heavenly Father is displeased with him morally, or that he has lost any measure of his salvation.

Nor does this experience enable us to please everybody and appear perfect to all men. Our hearts may be as pure as the heart of an archangel, and we may love with a perfect love, and yet our conduct may be misjudged and we be accounted by others as being anything but fully saved. The brethren of Jesus did not believe on Him (John vii. 5) and His critics called Him a glutton and a wine-bibber. His servants will hardly be above their Master, but should rejoice to be as their Master.

There are two reasons for this. One is that we 'have this treasure in earthen vessels' (2 Cor. iv. 7) -- that is, the love of God in our hearts may be perfect and His salvation complete, but because of our natural infirmities we may not be able to fully express in our conduct the holy affections and tender sympathies of our hearts. Just as clear water in a blue bottle will look blue, or in a yellow bottle will look yellow, so the pure, crystal-like salvation of God in our hearts takes on the color of our earthen vessel.

The other reason is that, just as when you look at a landscape through smoked glasses everything looks smoky, so the eyesight of many people is so distorted and blurred by sin, by prejudice, by unbelief, that even if our conduct be perfect, they, looking at us through the medium of their own sinfulness. will criticize us as they criticized our Lord before us. This being so, we need not expect the experience of full salvation to make us appear perfect in the eyes of men, but must content ourselves with having a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man, and in having His assurance that our ways please Him.

Others are seeking a sort of 'third heaven' experience, similar to what Paul had, in which they will see visions, hear voices, be visited by angels and constantly have tumultuous and rapturous joy. Like Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration, they say, 'Master, it is good for us to be here,' (Luke ix. 33), not knowing that Jesus wants to lead them down into the valley to cast out devils. Far be it from me to discourage any soul from seeking any experience mentioned in the Bible! Has not my own heart almost burst with fullness of joy and love? and cannot I, in the Spirit, say with Paul, 'Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?' (I Cor. ix. 1). Truly, the revelation Jesus gave me of Himself is unutterable, but I got this revelation not by seeking some marvelous experience, but by humbling myself to walk with Him, to wait for His counsel, to do His will and to believe what He said. Then He came to me and took up His abode in my heart. He has shown me, however, that although I am to have His joy, holiness does not consist so much in rapturous, sublimated experiences, as in lowly, humble, patient, trustful love.

But while some people put the experience up among the clouds, others leave it down among the fogs, and so fail to get it. They think that it consists in simply being free from condemnation, forgetting that a justified man is not condemned. For instance, a man has been condemned about the use of tobacco, or a woman about the feathers in her hat. Each feels that such things are not consistent with a Christian life, and, after a struggle with pride and habit, yields and casts away the offending thing. Of course there is now no longer any condemnation, and that soul feels justified; but it may not yet be sanctified, and it is not, unless, when the tobacco and feathers went out and off, the Holy Ghost came in, destroying every root of bitterness and sin out of the heart. Holiness is a thing of the heart; it is the purging away of the dross of the soul; it is the renewing of our whole nature so that we are made 'partakers of the Divine nature' (2 Pet. i. 4). It makes 'the tree good.'

My little eight-year-old boy had the nature of holiness revealed to him by the Holy Ghost. Some time ago he professed to get saved, and I think he did get saved, though he is not so saintly as I feel confident he yet will be. One evening, not long since, however, he said to his mother: 'Mamma, I'm tired of living this way.' His mamma, of course, queried, 'Why, darling, what's the matter now?' 'I want to be good all the time,' said George. 'You tell me to go and do things, and I go and do them, but I feel angry inside. I want to be good all the time.' The next morning, as soon as he woke up, he said, 'Mamma, I want you to put that text, "Create in me a clean heart, O God," in my text book.' And then when he prayed he pleaded the prayer of the royal Psalmist,' Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me' (Ps. cxxxix. 23-24).

Now, holiness makes one good all the time; not only in conduct, but also in character; not only in outward act, but also in inward thought and wish and feeling, and those who are content with anything below this, will miss the blessing.

IV. Another hindrance is the failure to rightly 'consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus who was faithful . . .' (Heb. iii. 1-2), and to appropriate the grace He offers us.

The other day an earnest Christian woman was complaining to me at her breakfast table about her pride and her temper, which she had found unconquerable. I suggested that she should consider Jesus, and asked her how she could be proud in the presence of His deep humility. I requested her to imagine Him, the King of kings, the Lord of life and glory, humbling Himself and meekly carrying His Cross up Calvary, amid the mocking crowd, while she walked by His side or followed His train in pride, with high and haughty head. She saw the point, and while we were at family prayers, she said she could never forget that lesson in humility. If people would but study the life and spirit of Jesus, and gladly let His mind be in them, the subject of holiness would be greatly simplified. Paul said: 'Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus' (Phil. ii. 5), and then he goes on to show us that this mind is one of deepest humility, which led Jesus to empty Himself of His glory and humble Himself to die on the Cross as the vilest of men, and it is this humble, self-forgetful, loving mind Paul pleads with us to have.

Holiness is not some lofty experience, unattainable except to those who can leap to the stars, but it is rather a lowly experience, which lowly men in the lowly walks of life can share with Jesus, by letting His mind be in them. Bless God for ever!

Heart Talks on Holiness Part 3

HOLINESS: HOW TO GET IT

Holiness is that state of our moral and spiritual nature, which makes us like Jesus in His moral and spiritual nature. It does not consist in perfection of intellect, though the experience will give much greater clearness to a man's intellect and simplify and energize his mental operations. Nor does it necessarily consist in perfection of conduct, though a holy man seeks with all his heart to make his outward conduct correspond to his inward light and love. But holiness does consist in complete deliverance from the sinful nature, and in the perfection of the spiritual graces of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness truth, meekness and self-control or temperance.

Righteousness is conformity to the divine law, but holiness is conformity to the divine nature. That there is such an experience is revealed to us in three ways:

1. By the Scriptures. The Bible tells us that God chastens us 'for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness' (Heb. xii.10) And He has 'given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust' (2 Pet. i. 4) in the Bible God makes us very precious promises of holiness. He gives us very solemn and imperative commands to be holy. He earnestly exhorts us and graciously encourages us to be holy, and teaches us to pray for holiness.

2. That there is such an experience is revealed to us by the testimony of holy men and women, who declare that God has brought them into this glorious experience.

3. It is revealed by the hunger and thirst of our own regenerate hearts: for if these desires to be like God, and to have His love and holiness so fill our hearts as to cast out every sinful thought and desire are begotten in us by the Spirit of God, then may they well be consider as proof that holiness is possible. For the Spirit of God will not beget desires in the hearts of His trusting children only to mock them.

Nearly all Christians expect to be made holy either before they die, or at the moment of death. And everybody agrees that we must be holy before we can enter Heaven.

Some other Christians maintain that we are sanctified at the moment of death by some mysterious operation of the Spirit of God; while others again insist that we grow into the experience. But we of The Salvation Army believe that it is the gift of God, and is the heritage of every soul that is born again, an inheritance into which we can enter at once by hearty consecration and childlike faith.

How then shall this holiness be obtained? Not by purgatorial fires, but by Holy Ghost fire. Not by works; that would make man his own savior and sanctifier. A great trick of the devil is to lead people to think they will get it by doing something, but a man might as well try to lift himself over the fence by his own bootstraps as to transform himself into the divine nature by works. He can get it no more by works than he can change the color of his eyes by works. He can no more rid himself of an inherited temper, or get lust out of his heart, or hatred, or pride, by getting baptized, by going to church, by joining the Army, by putting on the uniform, by reading the Bible, by doing any or every religious work, than he can get scrofula out of his blood by doing these things or add one cubit to his stature. 'Not of works, lest any man should boast' (Eph. ii. 9). However, a holy man is abundant in good works, and so is one who is truly seeking the blessing. But more of this further on.

Not by growth. Growth adds to us, but takes nothing from us, neither does it change the nature and disposition. Holiness consists in having something taken from us and in having our spiritual nature made over into the image of Jesus. In order to be holy we must have every unclean desire and temper and passion of the soul removed. We must 'put off . . . the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,' (Eph. iv. 22), as really as a man puts off his old coat, 'and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness' (Eph. iv. 24), as really as a man puts on his new coat. This is the way God told Paul to tell us to do it. It would be nonsense to talk of growing out of an old coat into a new one. Put off the old coat, put on a new one! Put off the old Adam, put on the new Adam!

It is not by death. I used to think it was, because I was taught so. But I dreaded the thought of being killed by lightning, or shot by a stray bullet. I did not want to die suddenly; I wanted time to get ready. But, glory to God, I learned that it is not by death, and now I am ready to meet that old enemy. Hallelujah for ever!

Well, how can you get it? From Jesus, the very same Jesus that saved you and spoke peace to your troubled conscience, when you feared you were going to sink into hell. The very same Jesus that died for you. But how? By asking. By giving yourself freely and for ever to Him, to be not only your Savior, but also your Lord and Master; to do and suffer all His blessed, wise, tender will. By believing and receiving.

If you knew you had to die at sunset to-night, what would you do? You would give yourself to God. If you had any grudges against any of your neighbors, you would give them up, and if you had the opportunity you would ask them to forgive you for hating them, even though they had wronged you or some of your friends. You would not stop to think how they would treat you. You would not care. You would feel it your business to get right, and you would leave them with God. If you had robbed any man, you would try to restore to him what was his. If you had any selfish plans, or ambitions, they would sink into mole hills before the mighty mountains of eternity, and you would give them up quickly. If you had been unfaithful in the discharge of any duty, you would confess it, mourn over it, and do all in the limited time left you to make the matter right. You would prepare the way of the Lord, and make His paths straight. Then, you would throw up your hands in helplessness, and ask God to forgive you for Jesus' sake, and not because there was any merit in yourself. And if you really trusted, you would receive forgiveness, and be at peace. You would feel Jesus to be your Savior, and you would rejoice in Him.

Now you would be a candidate for holiness. If the Holy Spirit should now reveal to you the hidden corruption of the human heart, and show you that it was out of this bad soil that grew the bad weeds of hatred and pride, selfish ambitions and envy, lies, adulteries, murders, drunkenness, thefts, and such like, you would cry to God to rid you not only of the weeds, but to entirely change the condition of your heart out of which such unholy things grew. And there would be only one way to get this done, and that would be to ask God to do it for Jesus' sake; trust Him to do it, and wait with full expectation till He did do it.

And He would do it. He would purge your heart of all unholy conditions by the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire, as surely as fire purges gold of dross. Glory to God! This is just what He wants to do. He wants all His children to be like His well-beloved Son, Jesus. It was for this that He sent Jesus into the world, and it is for this that He baptizes with the Holy Ghost and fire.

Some time ago a lady came to the Penitent-form for sanctification in one of my meetings. After I had questioned her and explained the subject as fully as I could to her and we had prayed, she claimed the blessing though she did not get any special witness that the work was done. But soon she came again to one of my meetings and testified, and her testimony threw light on the difficulty with many people.

She said that for several days after she left that first meeting she did not feel any different, but while about her housework a thought came to her mind. No doubt the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier Himself; suggested it to her, that her sanctification was a part of her Father's will for her and that He offered it to her on the simple conditions of full consecration and Childlike faith in Him. Then it dawned upon her that she had met these conditions and that now instead of waiting for any unusual feelings she must just act as though it were done.

She then added that when she began to count it done and to act as though it were done, then she began to realize that God was doing His part. She began to feel the mighty workings of the Spirit in her heart.

Now it is just at this point that many people fail. They wait for feeling, and hesitate and doubt and wonder and go with their heads down and repine, and maybe throw away their confidence. Instead they should recklessly but intelligently give themselves over to Jesus to be His for ever, to do His will unto death; they should step out on the promise with humility and adoring faith toward God, and with a shout of defiance to the devil and all their fears, count the work done.

One day ten lepers, poor, miserable men with the flesh rotting off their bones, met Jesus, 'And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when He saw them' (Luke xvii. 13-14) -- (bless Him!) -- how He loved them and yearned over them in their misery! But His yearnings over their sick bodies were feeble compared to His mighty yearnings over your diseased soul, my brother, my sister. 'And when He saw them, He said unto them, Go, shew yourselves unto the priests.' It was a law among the Jews that when a leper was healed, he must go to the priest and get a certificate that he was a safe person to be at large among the people, much as a smallpox patient might have to do among us. But these poor fellows might have objected and said to Jesus: 'But look at us! We are not healed. Our leprosy is just the same. We are not different since you spoke to us. We shall be fools to go in this plight, and we shall not be received if we do go. Do not mock us. Heal us, make us feel different that we may know we are healed, then we will go.'

No, no, no, these poor wretches did not talk so; they did not stop to reason with their doubts and fears; they did not stop to examine their feelings, or to compare themselves with the healthy folks about them. Jesus had spoken the word and it was theirs to trust and obey; and so they hobbled off, I imagine, as fast as they could go, 'And it came to pass ' -- (something always comes to pass when people trust and obey) -- 'And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.' Bless God! That was cleansing through 'the obedience of faith,' and it is written for our encouragement and instruction.

Reader, do you want this experience? If you have it, rejoice and praise God for it. Don't merely keep on seeking it, else you will get into darkness, but go to thanking God for it and testifying of it to others. But if you have it not, give yourself up fully to God just now, ask for it, believe for it, and if it does not come at once, patiently and expectantly wait for it. Expect it, expect it, expect it! He gives His people 'an expected end.' Remind God of His promises. Don't give Him any rest till He comes and sanctifies you. Tell Him you have come to stay, and that you will not let Him go till He blesses you. Nestle down on His promises close to the loving heart of Jesus and stay there expecting till you know the work is done.

If the devil and an evil heart of unbelief say: 'It is for others, but not for you' -- you say: 'I am all the Lord's; get behind me, Satan,' and tell Jesus about it.

If the devil says: 'You don't feel any different,' -- you say: 'I am all the Lord's; get behind me, Satan,' and tell Jesus about this also. If the devil says: You can't keep it if you do get it,' -- you say: 'I am all the Lord's; get behind me, Satan,' and don't forget to tell this to Jesus.

Act out your faith, regardless of your feelings, and a heaven of love and joy and peace and patience will soon fill your poor heart, and you will get 'lost in wonder, love and praise' only don't bother yourself about your feelings. Your business is to wait on God for orders and inspiration, and then to trust and obey. It is His part of the business to shine upon you and cleanse you, and fill you with the Holy Ghost, and make your heart bubble over with joy.

Claim the promise; feed on the word of God; feast yourself on His love and faithfulness in Jesus; wait on Him in believing, expectant prayer and you will be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and you will become strong to do a man's work for God and souls. You will rise above discouragements and difficulties, and you will chase a thousand of your enemies, and if you can find a fellow with a kindred spirit the two of you will put ten thousand to flight. Glory to God!

Go to believing just now and you will have peace. Continue to believe and your peace will flow like a river.

Hold on this way, resisting the devil steadfast in the faith, reminding Jesus of His promises and encouraging your own heart with them, and I declare it will not be long before your patient, expectant faith receives a great reward. God will say: 'It is enough; he has come to stay; We will bless him,' and, calling to mind His ancient promise, He will open the windows of Heaven and pour him out ' a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it' (Mal. iii. 10). Then down into your waiting, trusting, expecting heart will come the Comforter, the blessed Holy Ghost, and up from the deepest center of your soul will spring the artesian well of living waters of holy love and praise. Then the meek and lowly Jesus will come and dwell in your clean heart, and you will love Him more than a mother loves her first-born babe, or than the bridegroom loves his bride. You will adore Him and worship Him and pour out your heart's treasures upon Him, and loathe yourself for all your sins that crowned Him with thorns and nailed Him to the Cross, and your unbelief and hardness of heart that kept Him from you so long.

Have the blessing now. Let God search you and show you all your heart. Don't be afraid. Heartily give yourself to Him and trust, expect, ask, wait, receive.