Textual Sermons in Outline
We print in this chapter a number of outlines of textual sermons. It is not intended that these outlines shall be used exactly as here given; they are simply offered by way of illustration and suggestion. We first give outlines of sermons for Christians, and afterward outlines of sermons for the unsaved,
LOVE TO CHRIST
‘IT am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.’’ Acts 21: 13.
IntTRODucTION. — This text reveals the secret of the beauty and untiring activity and matchless success of the life of Paul. This secret can be put in three words, Love ro Curist. The Lord Jesus had Paul’s whole heart. There have been many great men and great women in the history of the church of Jesus Christ. Some of their names we know. Some of their names we do not know now, but we shall some day. These great men and women are the men and women who have had a great love for Jesus. A man may have great gifts, but, if he has not great love for Christ, he is after all as sounding brass and a clanging cymbal. Men and women who have a great love for Jesus — that is what the church needs to-day. And a great love to Christ is what each one of us needs in our own heart.
I, What Love to Christ will Lead to. 1. To Obedience to Christ. John 14: 15. To the one who loves Jesus the words of Jesus will be his most precious treasure. John 14:21, 23. The one who loves the Lord Jesus will not be contented with doing the will of Jesus when the knowledge of that will is forced upon his attention. It will be his constant study to discover more and more about the will of Jesus.
2. Purity. Jesus is the Holy One of God. He is infinitely pure. He hates sin. He hates sin in the life. He hates sin in the heart. If I love Him I will wish to be all that pleases Him.
3. Study about Him.
We all wish to know all we can about those we love.
If we love Jesus we will study about Him. We will
study the four gospels and the prophecies and the
epistles and the Revelation of Jesus. Not from a
sense of duty but because we want to know about
Jesus.
4. Communion with Jesus. We always delight in communion with those we love.
5. Love to Christ will lead to likeness to Christ. We grow like those we love.
6. Love to Christ will lead us to work for Christ.
7. Love to Jesus will lead to sacrifices for Jesus. Listen to the catalogue of what Paul gladly bore for Christ. 2 €or: 1124-27.
8. If we love Jesus we will proclaim Jesus.
II. How Learn to Love Him.
Some of us have said in our hearts, ‘‘I wonder if I do
love Christ?’’ Well the Bible tells how to have love.
1. We learn to love Christ by dwelling upon His love to us. 1 John 4: 19.
2. To learn to love Jesus we must study much of Him in the Scriptures. The way to learn to love Him is to learn to know Him.
3. It is the Holy Spirit who teaches us to love Jesus. He takes of the things of Jesus and shows them unto us. He bears witness of Jesus. He imparts to us His own love for Christ.
4. We learn to love Jesus at the Lord’s table. There we see Jesus.
LOVE FOR SOULS
‘Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I
ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.’’ Acts 20: 31.
InrrRopuction. — This text gives us a look into the life and
into the heart of Paul that stirs one’s soul to the very depths. It is one of the most wonderful pictures in the Bible. (Picture.) It opens to us one of the great secrets of Paul’s power.
I. The Importance of Love for Souls.
1, Because love for souls is an essential element of Christlike character. Not to have a love for souls is to be radically unlike Christ.
2. Because love for souls is necessary to successful efforts for their salvation.
3. Because lack of love for souls reveals either great hardness of heart or inexcusable ignorance.
II. How Manifested.
III.
1. In a deep concern for their salvation.
2. In earnest efforts for their salvation.
3. In our being in a constant lookout for opportunities to have some one.
In our going out to seek for them.
In joy over lost souls saved.
In sacrifices made to save them.
In deep sorrow of soul for those who will not be saved. Too often we are provoked rather than sad.
Ons
How Obtain.
The great fact to bear in mind in seeking an answer to this question is that love for souls is the work of the Holy Spirit. This we all believe theoretically. I wish we might be made to see it vividly and feel it to the very depths of our soul. Feel it deeply that the Holy Spirit alone can impart to you this glorious grace.
But on which conditions does He impart it?
1, A deep and genuine desire on our part for a love for
souls.
is a. Prayer. Luke 11:13. The prayer should be definite. Not merely for the work of the Holy Spirit in general, but for this specific and definite work of the Spirit. It seems to be a law of the Holy Spirit’s operation that He only gives that which we definitely see to be His work and definitely seek. Prayer. Expectant. Personal.
2. The Spirit works through instrumentalities. The Truth. What Truth?
’ (a) The value of the soul.
(b) The peril of the soul.
(c) Christ’s love for souls. 2 Cor. 3: 18.
4. The-Spirit works more largely as we put into operation what He has already wrought. Go to work,
SOUL WINNING
“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; but he that winneth souls wise.’’ Prov. 11: 20.
InTRODUCTION. — Men’s answers to the question who is the
wise man. God’s answer, ‘‘He that winneth souls is wise.’’ Every wise man will make soul-winning the business of life.
I. BECAUSE IT IS THE WORK CHRIST HAS APPOINTED US TO DO.
Matt. 28:19; Mark, 16:15. This is Christ’s commission to His disciples. Not to apostles only. The apostolic church undoubtedly understood that the commission was for the whole church and not merely to the officials. Acts 8:4. The idea of the church so prevalent to-day that soul winning is the business of a few officials in the church is utterly foreign to the New Testament ideas of the church. There every believer is a soul winner.
II. Because IT WAS THE BUSINESS OF LIFE WITH JESUS CHRIST AND
III.
BY MAKING IT THE BUSINESS OF OUR LIVES WE ARE FOLLOWING Him. Luke 1g:10. No one has a right to call himself a follower of Christ who is not a soul winner, who is not going out to seek and save the lost.
BECAUSE IT IS THE WORK IN WHICH WE SHALL ENJOY THE UNSPEAKABLE PRIVILEGE OF CHRIST’S PERSONAL PRESENCE Matt. 28:20. It is a wonder that men pay so little attention to the very clearly stated condition of the promise. It is when we go His way, that He goes ours. It is when we go forth with Him that He goes forth with us.
IV. BECAUSE IT Is THE WORK FOR WHICH THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IS BESTOWED AND IN WHICH WE ENJOY THE FULLNESS OF THE Spirit’s power. Acts 1:8. The gift of the Holy Spirit is bestowed for a special purpose and enjoyed ina special work. That we may be witnesses, that we may have power in soul winning, not merely for our own personal blessing and enjoyment.
V. BECAUSE IT IS THE WORK THAT PRODUCES THE MOST BENEFI-CENT RESULTS. Jas. 5:20. It saves souls from death. Three things here to notice.
1. The value of that which is saved, a soul. Mark 8: 36. 2, The second thing to notice is the awfulness of that from which the soul is saved, ‘‘from death.’’ Nota mere cessation of existence but the degradation of existence, eternal shame and infamy, agony. 3. That to which the soul is saved. To happiness. To holiness. To glory. To fellowship, and likeness to God.
VI. BEcAUsE IT IS THE WORK THAT BRINGS THE LARGEST AND MOST ENDURING REWARD. John 4: 36; Daniel 12:3. Many wish to shine here on earth. I would rather shine up there in eternal splendor. The brightest star in any galaxy of earthly glory soon fades. Earthly glory is not worth the seeking. But it pays to shine up there, to shine as the stars forever and ever.
ConcLusion. — Will you make soul-winning the great business of your life? Oh, for a church of men and women who would say and say honestly, ‘‘From this time I live for one purpose. I live to seek and save the lost. As God gives me health by consecrated living, by earnest and unceasing praying, by unwearied working, I will do what lies in me to rescue the perishing.”’
SAVING SOULS FROM DEATH
“‘He which converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death.’’ Jas. 5: 20.
I. The Glory of the Work.
Those are stirring words. — Startling weedel Are there souls in danger of death? There are. Where? About us everywhere. Every soul that has erred from the truth is in the way of death and unless converted will perish forever. The darkness of eternal and eternal death will soon close in upon him. But if we arise and by the power that God gives us convert that soul from the error of his way we will have saved a soul from death. Itisa great privilege to save a human life. But what is that from saving a soul from death? The life we save must soon be given up after all. But when I save a soul I save its eternity. One soul saved for eternity is worth a million lives saved for ten, fifteen, twenty or fifty years. And how much more fearful is that from which the soul is saved. When the soul finally dies there is no hope beyond.
II. Who Can Save Souls?
Everyone of us. It is God of course in the last analysis who converts sinners and saves souls. But the text makes it very plain that He does this glorious work through us. There are some who would sit down and wait until God saw fit to convert the sinner. The farmer might as well sit down and wait until God saw fit to give a harvest. God saves no souls without us. The number of unsaved men on the earth to-day who will be saved depends entirely upon the faithfulness of those who are already saved.
II), How Can We Convert Sinners.
1. First of all by prayer. 1 John 5:16. Prayer avails more than any other thing for the conversion of sinners.
2. In the next place we can convert others from the error of their ways, and so save them, by taking them to the place where they will hear the Word of God preached in purity and in power.
3. We can convert sinners from the error of their ways and so save their souls from death, by ourselves giving them the Word of God in the power of the Spirit. You may not be able to preach but you can do personal work.
4. We can convert sinners and so save their souls by giving our testimony of what the Lord has done for us.
5. By the use of tracts and books. If you cannot talk much you can give others a good tract and get them to read it.
ConcLusion. — These are some of the ways to save souls. There may be others but these are enough to begin with. Now begin. Begin to-day and then keep it up as long as you live.
WHY EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD WORK WITH
ALL HIS MIGHT FOR THE SALVA-TION OF THE LOST
“He which converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a
soul from death.’’ Jas. 5: 20.
IntTRopuctTion. — Every Christian should work with all his might for the salvation of the lost. There is something seriously wrong with any professed Christian who is not working constantly and working hard to get men to forsake sin and to accept Jesus. Such a person is fearfully backslidden. One of the most important marks of a true and satisfactory Christian experience is an earnest desire to see others saved, and constant efforts to that end. Luke 19: 10.
I. Why?
1. Because God is glorified by the salvation of the lost. Nothing glorifies God more than the conversion of a sinner. John 17:4; John 3: r6.
a. Every Christian should work with all his might for the salvation of the lost, because God has commanded us to do this work.
3. Every Christian should work, etc., because of love to them. It is an awful thing to think of what it means to be lost. It is an awful thing to think of what it means to be lost now, to say nothing of what it means to be lost hereafter. What can we do for others like saving them from sin and from its consequences? How our hearts are stirred when we hear of millions whose bodies are starving in India and elsewhere, but what is this to millions whose souls are starving, who are in sin away from God and without Christ. It is better far to save one perishing soul than to save ten million starving bodies.
4. Every Christian should, etc., for his own sake. Our eternal reward depends upon our earnestness and untiring activity in soul winning. Daniel 12: 3. Every new soul won is a new jewel in our Saviour’s crown and a new jewel in our crown,
Il. How?
1, By prayer. Praying for the lost is not only our duty toward the lost, but it is our first duty. We can accomplish more in that way than in any other single way.
2. By effort. Prayer is the first thing but not the only thing. Begin trying to lead men to Christ.
3. By training. We must train for the work in order to do the best work.
4. Seek and obtain God’s power. Acts 1:8. This power is for us all, Luke 11:13; Acts 2: 39; Acts 5: 32. Every Christian man and woman here can have the power of the Holy Ghost. Give yourself wholly to God. Ask, believe, claim and go to work,
WITNESSING “A true witness delivereth souls.” Prov. 14: 25. INnTRoDUCTION. — Our text to-day tells us one way and a most effective way of saving souls, that is, by witnessing ‘SA true witness delivereth souls.’’ By testifying to the truth, especially to the truth concerning Jesus we bring men to
TEXTUAL SERMONS art
accept Jesus and thus deliver them from guilt and sin and from eternal death. This was the work of John the Baptist. John 1:7. This was the work of the apostles. John rs: 27. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. John 15:26. This was the work of Jesus Himself. Isa. 55: 4; John 18: 37.
I. Who Should Be a Witness?
To this question the answer is very plain, every one who knows Jesus. If you have found Jesus there rests upon you a solemn obligation to tell others about Him. What would you think if people were dying by the thousand of a plague and some man had knowledge of a sure cure and kept it to himself for fear some one might not listen to him or might laugh at him?
II. To What?
1. First of all and most of all to Jesus Christ. Acts 10: 43; John 15:26. It is not so much of doctrines as of a person that we should speak, of Jesus, His death, His resurrection, and the power of His death and resurrection, as we know them in our own lives.
III. When and Where? Testify wherever you get a chance and whenever you get a chance. Paul isa pretty good example. We find in giving his testimony in the synagogue, in the market places, from house to house, in the open air, by the riverside, in jail, on shipboard, in camp, at his work, at meals, to Jews, to Gentiles, to theological professors, to ecclesiastical courts, to governors, to kings and queens, to jailors, to soldiers, to sailors, everywhere and all times of the day and night, and to everybody. A few specific places: 1. In our homes. Mark 5: 19. 2. In our places of business. 3. On the cars and on the streets. 4. The church meetings for testimony.
IV. What Are the Conditions of Effective Witnessing? 1. The first condition is a true life back of the testimony. If a man is not straight in his business, the more he keeps his mouth shut about Christ the better it is for the Christ and His cause.
2, The second condition of effective testimony is personal knowledge of the facts. If we are to be effective witnesses for Christ and His truth we must seek the largest and clearest possible knowledge of Him and of the truth as it is in Him.
3. The third and crowning condition of effective witnessing is the enduement of the Holy Spirit. Acts 1:8. There is great power in Holy Ghost testimony. There is little power in our testimony if the Holy Ghost be not upon us.
SPREADING THE GOSPEL
“Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.”” Acts 8: 4.
InTRODUCTION. — Seven years after Pentecost the church and the gospel were still very largely confined to the city of Jerusalem. Then God stirred up the nest and sent them forth. The gospel was spread by preaching it. There are four things in the text to notice. Who preached, what they preached, why they preached, where they preached.
I. Who Preached?
‘“They that were scattered abroad,”’ i. e. the rank and file of the church (cf. Acts 8:1). They simply spoke the Word. Wherever they went they told the story of Jesus and salvation in Him and what He had done for them. This is the most effectual and the most needed kind of preaching. This is the only way the gospel will ever have that spread that Christ intended it should have, by everybody who knows it and believes it and has felt its power telling it out among those with whom they come in contact.
II. What They Preached.
Notice what they preached. ‘*Preaching the Word,” or if we were to translate literally, ‘‘telling the good news of the Word.’’ They declared God’s own Word.
III. Why They Preached.
1. First of all they preached the Word because they believed it. 2 Cor. 4:13. Howcan any one believe this book and the wonderful promises it contains and not speak?
2. They preached in the next place because they believed men were perishing. That was what the Word told them. John 3: 36.
3. Because they had themselves been blessed by the Word. How can any one who has tasted the blessings of the gospel keep it to himself?
4. Because their Master had so commanded them. Matt. 28:19.
IV. Where They Preached.
They preached ‘‘everywhere.’’
PENTECOSTAL POWER
““And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like asa fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other’ tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.’’ Acts 2: 1-4.
InTRopucTiIon. — The second chapter of Acts forms one of the most inspiring, if not the most inspiring, page of Christian history. There is a hush. Then suddenly there comes straight from the throne of the ascended Christ a sound of a mighty rushing wind. They know what it means. Startled and yet filled with unutterable joy at the fulfillment of the promise for which they had so long waited they lookup. A strange sight fastens their gaze. Describe. Summarize rest of chapter.
This Pentecostal power is the subject of our study.
I. The Character of the Power.
Acts 1:8. It was power for testimony and service.
II. The Source of the Power. Acts 1:8. The Holy Ghost. The Spirit of God Himself wielded the Sword of the Spirit.
III. The Human Conditions of the Power.
In other words, what had the 120 done that prepared the
way for and made certain the coming of the Holy Spirit
in this Pentecostal Display of Power.
1. The disciples were wholly surrendered to Christ.
2. The disciples were obedient. Ch. 1: 4, comp. 2:1.
3. The disciples recognized their need. Ch. 1:14.
There must be a clear recognition.
4. The disciples intensely desired. Ch. 1:14; ch. 2:1. For ten days they bent their thought and prayer largely to this one point.
The disciples prayed. Ch. 1:14. Luke 11: 13.
6. The disciples believed. They expected. 1 John
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IV. How Manifested.
1. Spoke in the Spirit’s power. v. 4. Gave up their own strength and wisdom and used God’s.
2. Testified to ‘‘the mighty works of God.’’ No talk of self. Self was lost sight of.
3. Preached Christ. vs. 22-35.
V. Results. 1. Multitude, amazed, marveled, perplexed. vs. 6, 7, 12. 2. Some mocked. v. 13.
3. ‘‘Men pricked to their hearts.’’ v. 37. Genuine conviction. The need of this day.
4. Genuine conversion. vs. 41, 42.
ConcLusion. — Can we have this power and similar results? Yes, if we will meet the conditions. Heb. 13:8. Acts 2: 39-
THE PRAYER OF A RIGHTEOUS MAN
‘The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working.” Jas. 5:16, R. V.
InTRODUCTION. — The Revised Version is a decided improvement upon the Authorized Version. First because it brings out the character of the prayer, ‘‘supplication.’’ Secondly, because the Authorized Version produces the impression that the petitions of a righteous man avail much when they are offered in fervency, while the Revised Version correctly gives the impression that all petitions of a righteous man are effective.
The central thought of our text is, that there is great force or power, great ability to effect results, in the prayer of a righteous man. The word translated ‘‘availeth”’ is precisely the same word translated ‘‘can do’’ in Phil. 4:13. If it were translated the same here the verse would read, ‘‘The prayer of a righteous man can do much because (or while) it worketh.’’ The prayer of a righteous man can do much.
I. For Whom can the Prayer of a Righteous Man Do Much? 1. First for himself.
If we wish anything for ourselves the most effective
way to get it is to ask for it. Prayer avails much in
our own lives. It obtains what can be obtained in no
other way, and things that can be obtained in other
ways are oftentimes obtained in a less questionable
way and in a way much more to God’s glory by prayer.
(a) Prayer can get victory over besetting sin.
(b) Prayer obtains wisdom. Jas. 1: 5.
(c) Prayer obtains an insight into and understanding of the Word of God. Ps. 119: 18. Prayer will remove more difficulties in the understanding of the Word than the Commentaries will,
(d) Prayer brings Christ to dwell in our hearts by faith spn 3244, 17:
(e) Prayer avails to bring the Holy Spirit in all His fullness, with all His graces and bestowments of power into our hearts and lives. Luke 11: 13.
In every direction prayer avails for our spiritual welfare and strength and growth as almost nothing else does. Is. 40: 31. (f) Prayer not only avails in spiritual lines but in temporal as well. Phil. 4:6. 3. The prayer of a righteous man can do much not only for himself but for others.
(a) It can do much for the unsaved. 1 John 5:16.
(b) Prayer can do much for your preacher. It will
bring him wisdom, and the power of the Holy
Ghost. Eph. 6:19, 20.
There are other directions in which prayer can
do much for the church, for missions, for civil
government.
Conctusion. — In closing note whose prayer it is that so avails. ‘‘The prayer of a righteous man.’’ That is the prayer of a man who orders his life according to God’s will as revealed in His Word. John 3: 22.
A MIGHTY PRAYER
‘*Then the fire of God fell.’’ 1 Kings 18: 38.
IntTRoDuUcTION. — This world has been witness to many mighty prayers — prayers that have wrought marvelous results. But there have been few prayers recarded in the world’s history that have produced more marked and astonish, ing results than the one whose answer is described in our text. Describe circumstances and scene. That prayer brought the fire of God down to this earth. A mighty prayer. He was a man with ‘‘like passions with us.’’ Jas. 5:17, R. V. So we can by prayer effect as great things as Elijah did.
How Elijah Prayed. 1. We notice first of all that Elijah’s prayer was to the true and living God. 2, Elijah’s prayer was the prayer of a man who was obeying God. (v. 36.) God demands reciprocity. If He is to do what we ask of Him, we must do what He asks of us.
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Elijah’s prayer was for God’s glory (‘‘Let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel’).
Elijah’s prayer was for something God had promised or had stirred him up to ask for. (‘‘Let it be known,” etc., ‘‘I have done all these things at thy word. ’’)
If you wish to pray as Elijah did wait upon God as he did to teach you by His Word or by His Spirit what to pray for.
Elijah’s prayer was based upon shed blood.
Elijah’s prayer was earnest.
. It was a believing prayer. Elijah had no doubt that he
would get what he asked.
WORSHIP
‘‘The hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.’
John 4: 23.
IntropucTion. — This text informs us that God is seeking
worshippers. (R.V.) The one thing above all else that God desires of menis worship. It is sometimes said ‘‘we are saved that we may serve.’’ This is true, but it is still more profoundly true that we are saved that we may worship.
I. What is Worship?
It is a definite act of the soul in relation to God. The term is used in our day in a very vague and general and unscriptural way. The worship of God is the soul bowing down before God in absorbed contemplation of Himself. ‘In our prayer we are occupied with our needs, in thanksgiving we are occupied with our blessings, in
worship we are occupied with Himself.”’
II. The Duty and Blessedness of Worship.
1. We owe worship to God. It is our first duty toward
Him. There is definite commandment in the N. T. as
well as the Old that we worship Him. If we do not
worship God we are robbing Him of that which is
His due.
2. But worship is not only a duty, it is a privilege, a privilege full of blessing.
(a) There is no deeper joy, no purer joy than that which springs from the adoring contemplation of God.
(b) It also brings likeness to Him. It is by looking at Him we are made like Him. Our complete transformation into His likeness will come through the complete and undimmed vision of Himself.
(c) Worship is a blessed privilege again because it brings power, power for life, power also for
service.
III. How to Worship Acceptably
1. ‘In the Spirit.’’ This means in the Holy Spirit. Comp. Phil. 3:3, R. V. The only true worship, the worship which is acceptable to God, is the worship which the Holy Spirit inspires.
2, The only acceptable worship is worship offered through Christ. John. 14: 6.:
3. *‘In truth.”’ -That is, in reality.
Conc.iusion. — Shall we not say that there shall be more of worship in our lives from this time, and that our worship shall be of that character that God seeks from us?
SEPARATION
‘‘Wherefore come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be to you a Father, and ye shall be to me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.’’ 2 Cor. 6:17, 18, R. V.
Intropuction. — In this text we have a very precious promise but also a very plain and explicit commandment.
All of Israel’s ills in the Old Testament arose from the fact that they did not heed Jehovah’s call to separation. Ps. 116: 34-36, 39, 40-42. The believer’s failure to heed God’s call to separation is the cause of the powerlessness and lack of blessing in the individual and the church.
I. First of all it is clear that we must separate ourselves from every form of sin. Ch. 7:1.
II. In the next place there should be separation from the
IIT.
IV.
methods and practices and fashions of the world. Rom. 12:1, 2. A Christian is a citizen of another world, and
has no right to take his pattern from this. (Phil. 3: 20,
R. V.)
There should be separation from worldly affiliations. This comes out clearly in the words which precede our text. Vs. 14-16. The child of God has no right to enter into any partnership with the unsaved. A woman who is a believer, i. e., who has a saving faith in Jesus Christ, has no right to enter into a matrimonial yoke with an unbeliever, i. e., one who has not a saving faith in Jesus Christ. Neh. 13: 26.
A Christian has no right to be yoked together in business partnership with an unsaved man.
There should be separation from everything that
entangleth. 2 Tim. 2: 4.
V. There should be separation from professed Christians who are living in known sin. 1 Cor. 5:11.
There should be separation from professed Christians who walk disorderly, i. e., who refuse to obey the teachings of the Word. 2 Tim. 3:6, 14.
This does not mean that there should be separation from a brother who is merely in the faith.
VII. The Commandment is not ‘‘come out from the church.”’
It was coming out from unbelievers and idolaters that Paul was talking about. Read vs. 14:18. Nothing was further from Paul’s thought than telling people to come out of the church. True separation is not merely separation from but separation to. Our separation is from all uncleanness unto Christ.
VIII. True separation will not only be a separation unto Christ
but also a separation unto all those who belong to Christ.
A REMARKABLE ROBBERY “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me.’’ Mal. 3: 8. InTRODUCTION. — When the strange question of the text is
first put to us, we are disposed to answer at once, ‘‘No, certainly not, certainly no one will reach such a pitch of blind and desperate wickedness as to rob God.’’ But God gives a different answer. He says, ‘‘Ye have robbed me.’’
I. How Can a Man Rob God?
A man can rob God by holding back from Him anything that is His due.
I.
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The gifts and offerings that are His due. All our
money belongs to God.
. The time that is His due.
The service that is due Him.
The surrender that is due Him.
. The glory that is due Him. No glory is due to ourselves for any of our achievements, physical, mental or spiritual. No one of us has a right to boast of anything we accomplish. The Glory all belongs to God, and to Him we should render it. If we take to ourselves this glory that rightfully belongs to God we have robbed Him of His due.
The Confession that is due Him. We owe to God the Father and to His Son Jesus Christ to confess them as our God and Saviour before the world.
The Thanksgiving that is His due.
The Worship that is due. Worship is due to God from man. This is God’s first great claim upon man. This is His supreme right. If you do not give it you rob Him.
II. The Monstrous Guilt of Robbing God.
‘“What of it?” ‘*What of robbing God?’* To rob God is infinitely more monstrous than to rob man.
I.
God’s rights are the supreme rights. All our modern moral philosophy is out of joint because it puts the rights of the finite above the rights of the infinite, — the rights of the creature above the rights of the creator.
The monstrousness of robbing God is seen if we think of the way in which God has dealt with us. God is love and all His ways with man are ways of love.
III, The Consequences of Robbing God.
Mal. 8:9. ‘‘Ye are cursed with a curse.’? The whole land of Israel was cursed because they robbed God. The fundamental cause of the want and misery and ruin that fill this land to-day is that the nation has robbed God. What is true of the nation is true of the individual. Our robbery of God is withholding from us the fullness of blessing God has for us.
Conc.usion. — We have seen some of the ways in which man robs God, we have seen the enormity of this sin, we have seen the curse and blight that come into our own lives from it. The practical conclusion of the whole matter is self-evident. Let us repent of our sin to-day, let us confess it to God to-day, let us render to Him to-day and from this time on the full measure of that which is due Him, and He will open the windows of heaven and pour into our lives a blessing that there shall not be room enough to contain it, an overflowing blessing.
WALKING WITH GOD “Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God took him.’’ Gen. 5: 24.
InTRoDUCTION. — This is one of the most fascinating and thrilling verses in the Bible. It sounds more like a song from a heavenly world than a plain statement of an historic fact ‘ regarding a humble inhabitant of this world of ours.
I. What is it to Walk with God? To walk with God means to live one’s life in the consciousness of God’s presence and in conscious communion with Him, to have the thought constantly before us, ‘*God is beside me,’’ and to be every now and then speaking to Him and still more, listening for Him to speak to us. In a word, to walk with God is to live in the real, conscious companionship of God. Enoch walked with God not in a few rare occasions of spiritual exaltation, such perhaps as most of us have known, but for 300 consecutive years after the birth of Methuselah. Gen. 6:22. It is possible for us to have the consciousness of the nearness and fellowship of God in our daily life, to talk with Him as we talk to an earthly friend — yes, as we talk to no earthly friend — and to have Him talk to us, to commune with Him too in a silence that is far more meaningful than any words could be.
II. The Results of Walking with God.
ITI.
1. Great joy, abounding joy. Ps. 6:11.
In one of the loneliest hours of His lonely life Jesus
looked up and said, I am not alone because the Father
is with me. John 16: 32.
Abiding peace. Ps. 16:8, 11.
3. Spiritual enlightenment.
Communion with God rather than scholarship opens
to us the mind and thoughts of God.
4. Purity of heart and life. Nothing is so cleansing as
the consciousness of God’s presence.
Beauty of character. We become like those with
whom we habitually associate.
6. Eminent usefulness.
Enoch has wrought out immeasurably more good for
man than Nebuchadnezzar, who built the marvelous
structures of Babylon; than Augustus, who ‘‘found
Rome brick and left it marble’; than the Egyptian
monarchs who built the pyramids.
g. We please God. Heb. 11:5, R. V. This is more
than to be useful.
8. God’s eternal companionship. ‘‘Enoch walked with
God: and he was not; for God took him.’’
ie
How to Enter into a Walk with God.
1. First of all we must trust in the atoning blood of Christ. Heb. 11:5, cf. v. 4. God is holy and we are sinners. Sin separates asa deep and impassable chasm between us and Him, There can be no walking with Him until sin is put away, and it is the blood that puts away sin. Heb. 9: 22.
2. If we would walk with God we must obey God. John 14:2 23RO Ve
3. If we would walk with God we must cultivate the thought of His presence. We must ‘‘practice the presence of God.”
THE BELIEVER’S DEAREST TREASURE
“Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may gain Christ.” Phil. 3: 8, R. V.
IntTRopDucTion. — It is evident from this text that the Believer’s Greatest Treasure is Christ Himself. To the true believer Christ is infinitely dearer than all else. Hecounts all things but refuse in comparison with Christ. But why is Christ the Believer’s Dearest Treasure?
I. Because of What He has Done for Us. When we learn the meaning of Paul’s words, ‘‘He loved me and gave Himself for me,’’ then we cannot help but cry with Paul, ‘‘I count all things,’ etc:
II. Because of What He has Brought to Us.
1. First of all Christ has brought us pardon.
2. He has brought us peace.
3. He has brought us victory. He has brought us victory over sin.
4. He has brought us fruitfulness.
5. Eternal life. Eternal Life. ETernav LIFE.
III. Because of What He Himself is. Jesus Christ is vastly more than anything He has done or brought. If we must lose all and everything and could have Jesus He would satisfy every longing, and fill every crevice and corner of the heart. Do you know the most precious promise of this Book? Listen! ‘‘We shall see him as he is.’’
CHRIST AND THE! CHURCH “Christ loved the church,’”’ etc. Eph. 5: 25-27. I Christ’s Relation to the Church. Christ’s relation to the church is summed up in one word. He Joved it. That love has manifested itself in the past in one way. It is manifesting itself in the present in another way. It will manifest itself in the future in still
another way. 1. Christ’s love for the church in the past has manifested
itself by His giving Himself for it.
2. The love of Christ is manifesting itself in the present
in sanctifying it and cleansing it. In separating it from the world unto God, and in cleansing it from its sin. This He does by His Word. This sanctifying and cleansing by the Word is really effected by Christ Himself coming to dwell in us. So we may say that Christ manifested His love for us in the past in giving Himself for us, and He is manifesting His love to us in the present by giving Himself up Zo us.
3. Christ’s love has not completely manifested itself even
yet. It has a future manifestation. This same epistle tells us that the great manifestation of His love lies in the future. That it is “‘in the ages to come’’ that God is to “‘show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”’ Eph. 2:7. What is to be the future manifestation of Christ’s love for the church? Read v. 27, R. V. He is going to take the church by the hand and present it to Himself as His own bride — all glorious — not having one single spot — not having one smallest wrinkle — not anything of that sort — but holy, and without blemish. Oh, stand and contemplate the Bride of Christ as Christ Himself shall make her in the future manifestation of His love at His coming. ‘4A glorious church.”*
GRIEVING THE SPIRIT
“Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the
day of redemption.’’ Eph. 4:30, R. V.
I. Meaning of the Text.
1. These words bring out very clearly the personality of
the Holy Spirit.
2. The words again bring out the love of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s deep personal love for the children of God.
3. The words of the text bring out very forcibly the absolute holiness of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is grieved by our foolish and wicked words and deeds and thoughts, not merely because He loves us, but because He is holy, and abhors all that is unholy, and grieves when anything unholy touches those He loves.
4. The words of the text bring out again the extreme sensitiveness of the Spirit.
5. The words of the text bring out the fact that the Holy Spirit observes and understands all our acts and words and thoughts.
II. To Whom does Paul Write these Words?
To Christian people, to saved saints. In our text itself he speaks of those to whom he writes as being ‘‘sealed unto the day of redemption.’’ It is the child of God who grieves the Holy Spirit of God. He does not leave us when we grieve Him. It is not the Bible, but modern perversion of the Bible that speaks of the “‘grieving the Spirit away.’’ We are sealed by Him not for a day ora week or a year, but ‘‘unto the day of redemption.”’
GRIEVING THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD
“Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.’’ Eph, 4: 30.
InTRODuCcTION. — The fact that our wrong acts, words and thoughts cause such deep grief to our great friend and constant companion, the Holy Spirit, is a mighty motive for a life pure in word, deed and thought.
By just what sort of acts is the Holy Spirit grieved? The Apostle mentions some of them very definitely in the passage of which our text is the keynote.
I. First of all lying is one of the things that grieves the Holy
Spirit. Vs. 25. The Holy Spirit is ‘‘the Spirit of truth,’’ and He hates
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with immeasurable hatred all falsehoods — all lies — black lies and white lies. It causes great grief to Him when a lie escapes the lips of a child of God.
We grieve the Holy Spirit by uncontrolled anger. V. 26. The next thing that is mentioned as grieving the Holy Spirit is stealing. V. 28.
Some of you think, that surely doesn’t mean me. Are you quite sure about it? What does it mean to steal? To take something from another without giving him a just equivalent.
The Holy Spirit is grieved by corrupt conversation. V. 29. ‘Corrupt speech’’ literally translated would read ‘‘rotten speech.’’ But you will note that it is not enough to abstain from corrupt speech, we must speak ‘“‘such as is good for edifying, as the need may be, that it may give grace to them that hear.’’ The Holy Spirit is grieved not only over our use of corrupt speech, but also over our neglect of good speech.
V. There is a whole class of actions, words and feelings that
grieve the Holy Spirit. You will find them in v. 31.
1. Bitterness.
2. Wrath, sudden anger.
3. Anger, settled anger.
4. Clamour. That means the noisy assertion of our own rights and wrongs.
Evil speaking.
All malice. That is the root of all the rest of the evils mentioned. In contrast with these actions that grieve the Holy Spirit cited in v. 31, verse 32 sets forth the attitude of heart and life toward one another that is well pleasing to Him. Unless we are thus ‘“‘kind, tender hearted,’’ the Spirit is grieved.
an
ConcLusion. — Let me say in closing there is one way in
which we may always be sure of pleasing Him, i. e., by surrendering to Him the absolute control of all our thoughts, words and acts, by being “‘filled with the Spirit” in every realm of our being and life.
GRIEVE NOT THE HOLY SPIRIT
“Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.’’ Eph. 4: 30.
InTRODUCTION. — These words should be so deeply engraved upon the heart of every child of God that they should never be forgotten. They are words that should ring in our ears day and night, in all our temptations to do unholy things; in our personal lives, in our home life, in our social life, in our business life, in our church life. Reflection upon these words will help us to solve many perplexing problems. Ought I to do this thing? many a Christian has often to ask. Always settle such questions in the light of the text, Will it grieve the Holy One of God, or will it delight the Holy Spirit of God if I do it?
I. Why not Grieve the Holy Spirit? 1. First of all we ought not to grieve the Holy Spirit out
of consideration for Him.
The claims of the Holy Spirit upon each of us are
infinitely greater than those of a mother. We should
have a more tender consideration for Him than for
her. Not only is Hea being of wondrous dignity and
glory, a Divine being, whose rights are supreme, but
He is a being of wondrous, matchless tenderness and
love. A mother’s love is nothing to the love of the
Spirit.
2, We ought not to grieve the Holy Spirit out of consideration for ourselves.
The results of grieving the Holy Spirit are very
grievous to ourselves. What are they? The Holy
Spirit cannot do His whole work when He is grieved.
He is hindered from doing in us what He would do.
For any measure of blessing and power in any direction we are absolutely dependent upon the Holy Spirit.
(a) If the Holy Spirit is grieved our prayers will be hindered.
(b) The great secret of profitable Bible study is
studying the Bible under the Holy Spirit as our
teacher. If then the Holy Spirit is grieved we
lose something of our joy in Bible Study and
almost all of our profit.
(c) Again true joy is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Gal. 5:22. If, then, the Spirit is grieved our joy will be hindered. We may even lose altogether the joy of our salvation.
(d) Power in service is lost by grieving the Spirit.
The warning of our text is a very important and
very solemn one. How much depends upon our
heeding it.
II. How We Grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
Anything that is unholy or wrong in deed or word or act grieves Him.
BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT
“Be filled with the Spirit.” Eph. 5:18.
I. The Exact Meaning and Force of the Words.
1. Look at the word “‘filled.’’ That is a big word, and it
grows upon one as he looks at it. ‘‘Filled.’’ ‘Be filled with the Spirit.“”. How many of us can deliberately and honestly say, I am ‘‘filled with the Spirit’’? ‘‘Filled.’’ To be filled with the Spirit means to have the Spirit pervading with His holy and glorious presence every chamber and nook and corner of your being, controlling every purpose, every affection, every thought, every fancy, every action, every utterance.
2. The tense of the verb is the present, which indicates
that the process of filling must be continuous and constant. It will give Paul’s thought, to translate it, *‘Be continually getting filled.’’ Yesterday’s filling will not do for to-day. We must be like glasses that are kepc full of water by being kept constantly under the ever-flowing fountain. And each new filling should be larger than the last.
3. Notice the word ‘‘with.”’ Literally translated the
passage would read, ‘‘be filled in the Spirit.’’ The
TEXTUAL SERMONS a8e
thought is that the sphere of the believer’s life is ‘‘in the Spirit,’’ and he must let this Holy Spirit in which he is and lives get into him and fill him. If we are believers in Christ we are ‘‘in the Spirit.’’ He surrounds us and rests upon us with His glorious and holy presence, but He may not be in us yet in any large measure. We may be half full still, or nearly full still with the muddy water of our own pleasures and notions and purposes and ambitions. Paul’s thought is to let this water of life in which you float flow in and expel all else until the tumbler itself is full of that in which it floats.
II. The Obligation.
Having found the exact meaning of the words, let us look at the solemn obligation of obedience to them.
1. Paul’s words area command. They are in the imperative mood.
2. But there is a further obligation to be filled with the Spirit because if we are not filled we dishonor Jesus Christ. Every Christian who is not filled with the Spirit dishonors Jesus Christ.
3. Not being filled with the Holy Spirit is not merely a
serious lack, it is a grievous sin. It is a sin out of which many other sins spring. The only way to prevent the flesh bringing forth its awful brood of vices and sins is by being filled with the Spirit.
IIT. The Results of being Filled with the Spirit.
1. The first result would doubtless be new love. Gal. 5s 22:
2. The second result will be great joy. The fruit of the Spirit is first love, then joy. The Holy Spirit is ‘‘the oil of gladness.” Get filled with the Spirit and you will be filled with gladness.
3. Other graces of character will follow. ‘‘Peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Gal. 5:22, 23. A spirit-filled man will be a lovely man and a spirit-filled woman will be a lovely woman.
4. Thanksgiving. V. 20.
5. Power in prayer. Eph. 6:18.
6. Power in service. Acts 1: 8.
IV. How?
The truth is, the Holy Spirit is dwelling in each one of
us and wants to fill us if we will only let Him. Our chief
business in the matter is to let go the hindrances.
1. The first one is sin. The Spirit is Holy. The Holy
Spirit.
2. The second hindrance is pride.
3. The third hindrance is everything that is of self or of
the flesh.
Having done this, having let go every sin, having let go all pride, having let go everything that is of self and the flesh, just look to the Holy Spirit to come in and fill every part of your being, to take complete possession of everything, of every thought and purpose and affection and plan and act, and word. Ask Him to do it, expect Him to do it. Wait patiently, quietly upon Him. That is all; He does all the Test.
TRAVAIL FOR SOULS ‘For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.’’ Isa, 66: 8.
InTRODUCTION. — This text applies primarily and historically to Israel, but it states a great principle that has been illustrated over and over again in the history of the church and of individuals — that travail of soul is necessary if souls are to be born into the kingdom of God.
I. The Need of Travail for Souls.
Every great religious awakening has been born out of travail of soul on the part of some one. Martin Luther, Wesley, Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards, James Brainerd, Finney, the Irish Revival, Moody. It is doubtful if ever a single soul is born again without travail of soul on the part of some one.
II. Absence of This Travail of Soul To-day.
Ir.
That this travail for souls does not exist widely to-day is
evident from several things:
x. The comparatively small attendance of the membership of the church upon special meetings.
2. The small effort made to bring others out to the meetings.
3 The conduct of Christians who do attend the meetings.
4. The small amount of agonizing prayer that is going up to God.
How This Travail of Soul may be Brought about.
Two things are evident:
1. That travail of soul is necessary if there is to be a
great work.
2. That this travail of soul does not exist to any great
extent to-day.
The question then that confronts us is, How can we
secure this all-needed travail for souls.
1. By confessing its absence — confessing it toGod. God forgives our sins when we confess our sins. He supplies our lack when we confess our lack.
. By being willing to endure agony of soul that others
may be saved. Many want an easy, happy religion.
Many a woman never has a child because she is not
willing to pay the price of having a child. Many a
Christian, etc., because, etc.
3. By giving ourselves up to do all in our power to save
the lost.
4. By prayer. Rom. 8:26, 27; Luke 11: 13.
5. By dwelling upon the truth that will bring us to realize
the wretched condition and awful peril of those who are out of Christ.
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HOW To SECURE HEAVENLY TREASURE
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust
doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal.” Matt. 6: 19, 20.
IntTRoDUCTION. — It is one thing to be saved and another thing to gain a reward. It is one thing to get to heaven and quite another thing to lay up for ourselves treasures in the heaven we are to enter. Earthly treasures have little worth. How can we use these years, how can we use our lives so as to make eternity richer? How can we secure heavenly treasure? We goto the Word of God for our answer to this question, and we easily find it.
I. The first part of the answer we find in Matt. 19:21. By using the means we have, not for ourselves but for others, we secure heavenly treasure. If you would secure heavenly treasures, give, give, give.
II. The second way of securing heavenly treasures is very closely akin to the first. Matt. 19:29. By forsaking the things that are naturally dear to us for Christ’s name’s sake we secure heavenly treasures.
III. We can secure heavenly rewards or treasures by suffering persecution and reproach for Christ’s sake. Matt. 5211, 12.
IV. We gather fruit unto life eternal. We secure heavenly treasure by reaping souls, i. e., by winning souls to Christ. John 4:36; Dan. 1233.
V. We gain a heavenly crown, a crown of righteousness, a most desirable heavenly treasure, by loving His appearing. By looking forward with giad, joyous anticipation to His coming again.
Conciusion. — The way to secure heavenly treasures is simple enough. The Word of God makes it plain,
AN APPROVED WORKMAN
“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”” 2 Tim, 2: 15. InTRoDUCTION. — These words were originally addressed to a minister of the gospel, but they properly apply to all Christians; for every Christian should be in some sense, and in some sphere, a preacher of the truth. So the exhortation of the text is an exhortation intended for us.
I. The first thought it contains for us is that we are to seek
to present ourselves ‘‘approved unto God.”
The approval of men we are not to seek.
The approval of God we are to always bear in mind and to seek in all we do and all we are.
II. The second thought our text contains is that in order to present ourselves approved unto God we must ‘‘give diligence,’’ or make it a matter of earnest study and effort. There is no possibility of drifting into a life or work well pleasing to God.
III. The third thought our text contains is that in order to be
approved of God we must be workmen. God is a worker, and He desires all His children to be workers. There is a kind of teaching nowadays that seems to say, ‘‘It is not so important that you work. The important thing is that you get right with God yourself.”’ But our text says that you cannot get right with God unless you become what He Himself is — a worker.
IV. But our text teaches us that in order to be approved of God we must not only be workmen, we must be certain kind of workmen, ‘‘a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.’’ It is not enough to work, you must do good work.
V. The fifth thing our text teaches is that in order to be workmen who need not to be ashamed we must “‘rightly divide,’ or ‘‘handle right,”’ literally ‘‘cut straight” the word of truth. In other words, we must know our Bibles and know how to use them.
It is useless for a man to seek to be a workman that needeth not to be ashamed and neglect the constant, prayerful, thoughtful study of the Word of God.
THE TRIUMPHANT CRY FROM THE CROSS
“It is finished.” John 19: 30.
InTRODUCTION. — What did this dying utterance of our Lord and Saviour mean? What was finished?
I. First of all, His own sufferings were finished. Luke 12: 50,
The dread of horror of all these years, yes of the ages, was over.
II. The mission upon which God had sent Him into this world was finished. John 17: 4.
III. The prophecies concerning the sufferings and death of the Messiah, which angels and the prophets themselves desired to look into (1 Peter 1: 11-13) were finished. This is the immediate thought of the context where our text is found.
IV. The work of atonement was finished. There is absolutely nothing left for you or me to do to atone for sin. It is all done.
V. Another thing still was finished, and that is the Mosaic law — as far as its claims on the believer are concerned. Col. 2:14; Rom. 10:4; 7:4.
VI. There was one thing more that was ‘‘finished’’ at the cross, i. e., Satan’s power. Heb. 2:.14, R. V.; Col. 2: 15, R. V.
Conc.usion. — How full of meaning are the three words of Christ’s triumphant cry from the cross.
JOINT HEIRS WITH CHRIST
“If children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” Rom. 8:17.
InTRODUCTION. — This text is one of the most remarkable in this book which is so full of remarkable statements. Few of those who read it and reread it take in its stupendous import.
I, What Does it Mean? JOINT HEIRS WITH CHRIST. What can it mean? What does it mean? It means precisely what it says. It means that we are heirs of God in the precise sense and to the full extent that Jesus Christ is. It is true that Jesus Christ is the heir of God by His own eternal sonship, and that we are heirs of God only because of our relation to Him, because we are in Him; but being in Him, we are so identified with Him by the union of faith, that His entire inheritance becomes ours. All of God’s that belongs to Christ, belongs also to me by virtue of my union with Christ. I ama joint heir with Christ. Let us come more to specific things in which Christ and we are heirs of God.
1. First of all Christ is an heir of God’s infinite wisdom, and therefore so are we. Col. 2:3; comp. 1 Cor. 13:12.
2. Christ was an heir of God’s infinite power, and therefore so are we. Matt. 28:18; comp. 1 Cor. 15: 43.
3. But there is something better yet in God than His omniscient wisdom and His almighty strength to which Christ and we are heirs. Christ was heir to God’s goodness, to His infinite holiness, and therefore so are we. 1 Peter 1:16; Eph. 5: 27.
4. Christ was heir to God’s glory and therefore so are we.
Heb. 1:3. In John 17:22 Jesus distinctly declares
‘The glory which thou hast given me I have given
unto them.’”’ R. V.
5. We are heirs of God’s dominion. Rev. 3: 21.
II. Who are Heirs of God and Joint Heirs with Christ?
1. “If children then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.’’ But who are children of God? Turning back to John 1: 12 we get God’s own answer.
2. The fourteenth verse of the chapter from which our text is taken puts it in a different way. The one “‘led by the Spirit’’ is the Son, and so the heir and the joint heir with Christ.
3. There is one more thought upon who are “‘joint heirs with Christ’’ in the very verse from which our text is taken. ‘‘/fso be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.’’ R.V. The heirs with Christ hereafter are evidently those who suffer with Christ here. Wazth Christ.
THANKSGIVING SERMON
“And Jesus said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?’ Luke 17: 17.
InrRoDUCTION. — This is one of the saddest utterances that ever fell from the lips of Jesus. Jesus loved men, and like every one who truly loves, He desired love in return. When those He helped returned, as the poor Samaritan, with thanksgiving, it filled His heart with joy; when those He helped forgot to return thanks, it filled His heart with sorrow. The day should be pre-eminently what it professes to be, a day of thanksgiving to God.
I. The Duty.
1, We are commanded again and again to give thanks. Ps. 100; 43. Eph. 5: 4;. Col: 32.45, 17:
2. The rendering of thanks unto God is more acceptable to Him than costly sacrifices. Ps. 69: 30, 31.
3. The early Christians gave themselves continually to praise and thanksgiving. Acts 2: 46, 47.
4. Thanksgiving was habitual with Jesus Christ, our example. John 11:41; Matt. 11: 25.
5. Giving thanks unto the Father, is one of the inevitable results of being filled with the Spirit. Eph. 5: 18-20.
6. Thanksgiving is a necessary accompaniment for prevailing prayer. Phil. 4:6.
II. How to Render Acceptable Thanksgiving. Eph. 5: 20. 1. It should be ‘‘in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2. It should be ‘‘to the Father.’’ 3. It should be constant. 4. It should be for all things.
III. For What to Return Thanks To-day.
We have to-day many causes for thanksgiving, national and individual. Specify some of them. Each of us should go alone with God some time to-day, and think over the general blessings that we have received with others, as a nation, and the specific causes that there are for thanksgiving in our national life and the individual blessings that we have received,
GOD IS LOVE
“God is Love.”’ 1 John 4:8,
INTRODUCTION. — That is the most wonderful sentence ever written or spoken. We owe this great truth wholly to the Bible. Not merely announced in the Bible, it runs through the Bible. Ask me to put into one sentence what the Bible teaches and this is the sentence, ‘‘God is Love.”’
I. How has God Shown that He is Love?
1. By creating us and the universe. Creation was an act of love. The story of creation in Genesis 1 is a love story.
2. By punishing sin as soon as it entered the world and ever since. God’s unsparing and, if need be, endless punishment of sin is because God is love.
3. By forgiving sin when it is repented of. Is. 55:7. With the first pronouncing of doom upon Adam and Eve there is also a message of mercy.
4. By giving His Son to die in our place. This was the supreme manifestation of God’s love. 1 John 4: 10; John 3:16. The measure of love is sacrifice and God made an immeasurable sacrifice.
II. What is Our Duty?
We see, then, God is love. What is our duty in view of
that great and glorious fact?
1. To accept His love. There can be no greater sin than to despise and reject the love of God. There can be no clearer revelation of the utter badness and wickedness of our hearts than to despise and reject the love of God.
2. We should return God’s love with love. 1 John 4: 19.
3. Surrender absolutely to Him.
GOD’S WONDERFUL LOVE ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son: that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3: 16. InTRODuUcTION. — No other verse in the Bible has been used to the salvation of so many sinners as this.
I. The Objects of God’s Love. The world. God’s love is limited to no race, no class. There is not a man or woman in the world so vile that God doesn’t love them. Therefore we ought to love them too.
II. The Greatness of God’s Love. The measure of love is sacrifice. What sacrifice has God made for us? Gave His only begotten Son. For some reason it was necessary that God give His Son to suffer if you and I were to live eternally. And God gave His Son to die. No one can fathom the agony it cost the Father.
III. The Offer of God’s Love. The offer of God’s love. What is it? Eternal life. Love of man to man has prompted great gifts but there is no gift like this. Any one who believes gets this gift. ‘‘Whosoever.’’
IV. Our Treatment of God’s Love. But what are we doing with this love of God? This too is wonderful. 1. Some deny it. 2. Some only mention the God who so loved them, etc., to take His name in vain. 3. Some are conscious rebels against God. 4. Some trample His love under feet and despise it. 5. Many neglect His love. 6. Some accept it. Will you to-night?
WANTED — FIGHTING CHRISTIANS
“Fight the good fight of faith.” 1 Tim. 6: 12.
“Endure hardness as a good soldier of:Jesus Christ.” 2 Tim. 2: 3.
InrropucTion. — Christian life is a warfare, not a picnic. There are battles to be fought, enemies to be conquered, victories to be won. Of course, there are wonderful feasts to be enjoyed all along the way, but fighting and not feasting is our special business.
Three things to know if we are to obey our text.
First~-Who our enemies are.
Second — How to fight them.
Third — The conditions of success in our warfare,
I. Our Enemies.
Who are our enemies? Who and what is it that we are to
fight?
1, The Devil. Eph. 6:11, 12,
2. The World. 1 John5:4. The world has its ideas, its
ambitions, its usages, its disposition, its aims; and the ideas of the world, the ambitions of the world, the usages of the world, the aims of the world are contrary to the mind of God. The world seeks to bring us all under its sway, under the dominion of its ideas, etc. It is our business to fight the world, to resist its attempt to bring us into bondage to itself.
3. The Flesh. Our third enemy is the flesh, our own flesh.
4. Sin. Sin will attack us. We should fight it back. We need not yield to it or be overcome by it for one single moment. If we are knocked down by it we should jump up at once and renew the fight and conquer. But it is not enough to fight sin in your own life. Fight it in the lives of others.
5. False Doctrine. We must resist error of doctrine in
ourselves; we must not ourselves argue it with others. Jude 2, R. V. Some think that false doctrine is not worth fighting against. It is more worth fighting against than political tyranny in its worst forms. True doctrine is salvation and life. False doctrine is damnation and death.
II. How to Fight.
1. First of all we must fight to win. No Christian has a
right to expect defeat or to be defeated.
3. We must fight energetically.
3. We must fight wisely. The way to get wisdom for our holy war is by prayer. Jas. 1:5. Much of our fighting must be done upon our knees.
4. We must fight persistently. This warfare is never done until Jesus comes or God calls us home. The trouble with many a Christian warrior is that he fights intermittently.
III. Conditions of Victory. 1. First, faith in Jesus Christ. 1 John 5:4, 5. 2. We must be strong. Eph. 6:10; Eph. 3:16; 1 John 2° ad. 3. We must be ready to ‘‘endure hardness’’ or ‘“‘suffer hardsbip.:” -2/Timi2r3: 4. A knowledge of weapons. (a) We must know what the best weapons are. The great weapon of our warfare is the Word of God. (b) But we must not only know what the best weapons are but we must actually have these weapons. (c) We must know how to use our weapons.
ETERNAL LIFE OR THE WRATH OF
GOD — WHICH?
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.”’
John 3: 36.
InTRODUCTION. — One of the most meaningful and glorious phrases that ever were uttered is that which was so often upon the lips of Jesus Christ — ‘‘Eternal Life.’’ One of the most awful and apalling phrases ever uttered is this other that Jesus uses in our text, “‘the wrath of God.’’ It cannot be put into words, it cannot be conceived even in fancy, all the wealth of glory there is wrapped up in those two words, ‘‘eternal life.’’ Neither can it be put into words, nor conceived by human imagination, the depth of horror, shame and woe that are wrapped up in that other phrase, — ‘‘the wrath of God.’’ It is between these two, that each of us to-night are called to take our choice.
I. The Things Contrasted.
1. ‘‘Eternal life’’ — what is it?
(a) First of all, it is really life. 1 Tim. 6:19, R. V.
(b) Eternal life is fullness of life. It is life abundant. Jno. 10:10, R. V. It is full of beauty, full of peace, full of satisfaction, full of joy, full of glory.
(c) Eternal life is a life of the highest knowledge. John 17:3. Eternal life is knowledge of the Infinite.
(d) Eternal life is the life of God. 1 John 1:2. Eternal life is the life of the holy, blessed God, the infinite life imparted to us.
(e) Eternal life is endless life. Endlessness is not the most essential characteristic of eternal life. Its quality is more than its duration but nevertheless it is endless.
2. ‘*The wrath of God’’ what is that? It is just what the words express. It is the intense and settled displeasure of the infinitely holy Being Who created us and all things, and Who has the absolute control of all the powers of the universe.
“The wrath of God,’’ ‘‘the wrath of God,’’ — there is
nothing more awful than that. To have yon Holy
One, yon Holy Being before Whom the seraphim veil
their faces and cry, Holy, holy, holy, to have yon
omnipotent and infinite Ruler of this universe, yon mighty One Who holds the sun and moon and stars, all the stupendous worlds of light that stud the illimitable expanse of heaven, in the hollow of His hands, as well as shapes the whole history of this tiny ball that we call the earth, to have Him displeased with us, to incur His wrath, His intense, deep-seated, settled displeasure. ‘‘Eternal life’’ — ‘’‘the wrath of God.” Which will you choose?
Tl. How Decide. By what act do we determine whether Eternal Life or the Wrath of God is to be our portion? Listen to God’s own answer to this question. It is not the answer of all modern philosophers. It is not the answer of all modern theologians. It is not the answer of all modern preachers, but it is God’s answer, and it is sure. (Quote text).
The act by which we bring upon ourselves ‘“‘the wrath of God’’: ‘‘He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth upon Him.’’ It makes no difference who or what you are.
‘
HOW TO BECOME SONS OF GOD
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God; even to them that believe on his name.” John 1; 12. Intropuction. — If I could tell how to become a son of a monarch or a millionaire I would get many eager listeners. To be a child of God involves much more: much more in the life that now is — much more in the life which is to come.
I. What is Involved in being a Child of God?
1. Our absolute security in this present life,
2. The supply of every realneed. Matt. 6:8. Not every fancied need,
3. Joy. The child of God must be happy for this is God’s world.
4. Peace.
5. Likeness to God. The one who becomes a child of God must ultimately become like God. 1 John 3:1, 2.
6. Infinite joy hereafter. Rom. 8:17.
/II. How may We Become Sons of God?
But some one may say, ‘‘Are we not already sons of God? We are not. We are all God’s offspring (Acts 17: 28), i. €., we are His creative work, and man was originally made in God’s image, but we are not all sons of God in any such full sense as involves the things just mentioned. John 1: 12; Gal. 3: 26; John 8: 44. Any hopes built upon the supposition that all men are God’s sons, are built upon the sinking sand, and they will fall some day and crush von.
How, then? John 1:12. Simply receiving Jesus makes us sons of God. What is it to receive Jesus? We cannot afford to make any mistake here, too much depends upon it, too much in the life that now is — too much in the life to come.
What is it — etc.? What is it to receive any man? It is to
take him as that for which he offers himself. If a man
offers himself as a physician, to receive or take him, is to take him as your physician, and to put the care of your
health into his hands. If any man offers himself as a
husband, to receive him or take him is to accept him as
your husband. Any young man or young woman knows when a young man says to a young woman, ‘‘I want to be your husband, will you take me?’’ just what he means.
Now to receive Jesus is just to take Him as He offers Himself.
1. He offers Himself as our atoning Saviour, as the one who bore our sins in His own body on the cross. Matt. 20: 28. Will you take Him as that?
2. He offers Himself as our deliverer from sin’s power. John 8: 36.
3. He offers Himself as our rest-giver. Matt. 11; 28. Will you take Him as that?
4. He’offers Himself as our teacher. John 13:13; Matt. 23:8. Will you take Him as that? Will you submit your mind to Him for Him to teach you what He will, accepting of His teaching as the truth of God?
5. He offers Himself as our way of access to God, and as the’incarnation of the truth, and as our life. John 14:6. Will you take Him as this?
6. He offers Himself as our King. John1:12. Will you take Him as your King?
7. He offers Himself as our Lord and God. John 5:22, 23. Will you accept Him for all that He has offered Himself, or may offer Himself, studying more and more to know all that He does offer Himself to be? Of course this is an act of faith, but it means that you will become sons of God.
III. Who may Become Sons of God in this Way?
Any one (read the text). How sweepingitis. It leaves no one out. You may be the ripest scholar, or you may be utterly without education, but if you receive Jesus, instantly you become a child of God.
You may be a person of amiable, attractive and lovely character, or you may be the vilest sinner. I know a man who was deep in sin, utterly enslaved; he was deep in unbelief also, but one day he received Jesus, — took Him for all He wished to be to him, and he became a child of God. God gave him evidence of sonship by setting him free from the bondage of sin, sending His Spirit into his heart bearing witness, etc.
Conciusion. — It is possible for any one in this house to become a child of God this moment. Do you wish to? You must accept Jesus, that is all. Will you doit? Ah, some of you hesitate! How foolish! Can this world offer anything so good, so glorious, for time and eternity as becoming a child of God?
I know a man who once had this same opportunity put before him. At first he thought he would accept it, but then he thought again and said, ‘‘No, I better not, Iam a lawyer, and it may interfere with my practice.’’ He rejected the opportunity. He went right down and became an infidel, as so many become who resist God’s spirit and God’s love. He sank lower yet. From a place of prominence he became despised for his low acts, and could get noclients. He became the laughing stock of the community. It was a life thrown away. Yes, and an eternity thrown away.
GOD-GIVEN CONVICTION
“They were pricked in their heart.’’ Acts 2: 37.
InTRoDuUCTION. — It is not a pleasant thing to be pricked in one’s heart with a conviction of sin. Indeed it isa most distressing experience, but it is an experience which if rightly received leads to very great blessing. The very worst thing that can happen to you is to be able to sit here entirely unmoved by what you hear.
There are three things to consider about our text.
I. Why they were pricked in their heart.
II. How they were pricked in their heart.
III. The results of their being pricked in their heart.
I. Why these Men were Pricked in their Heart.
They were pricked in heart because their conscience long asleep was at last awake, and they saw the appalling enormity of the sin they had committed in crucifying Jesus Christ. They were at last awakened to the fact that God had raised Jesus from the dead and exalted Him to His own right hand. They understood that Jesus whom they rejected was both Lord and Christ.
Every one in this audience who is rejecting Jesus Christ will some day awake to the fact of who Jesus is, the dignity, majesty and glory of His person, and then you will be pricked in your heart. It may be too late then, but it will not be too late to-night.
II. How they were Pricked in their Heart.
III.
1. By the preaching of the Word of God. Peter’s sermon did it and that sermon was pretty much all Bible.
2. By Peter’s testimony to a risen and exalted Saviour.
3. By the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. John 16: 7, 9).
The Results of their being Pricked in their Heart.
There are many who do not wish to be pricked in their
heart because it is not a pleasant experience, but we will
see that though it is a bitter medicine, the results are glorious.
1. The first result of their being pricked in their heart was that they turned from their awful sin.
a. The second result of their being pricked in their heart was that they publicly confessed their sin and their acceptance of Christ.
3. The third result was that they were saved. v. 47. To be pricked in heart now and to yield to it means that you will be saved from having your heart gnawed through all eternity by the worm that dieth not.
Conc.usion. — This is a great text, ‘‘they were pricked in their heart.’’ Let us wait a few moments silently and prayerfully, and see if the Holy Spirit will not prick some here in their hearts. You have committed the same awful sin that those mentioned had committed. You have crucified the Son of God. Think of that. Say to yourself, ‘‘I am guilty of the awful sin of crucifying Christ.” Ask God to make you feel it. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to see your appalling guilt. Is something pricking your heart now? Then yield. Repent. Turn from sin, accept Christ, begin to confess Him. Who will?
WHAT TO DO WITH JESUS ‘‘What shall I do with Jesus, which is called Christ?’’ Matt. 27: 22.
IntRoDuUcTION. — No man ever asked a more important question than Pilate asked here. A question that confronts us all. Pilate made a great mistake. He asked man what he should do with Jesus instead of asking God. But Pilate not only went to man with his question, he went to enemies of Jesus Christ and they cried out, ‘‘Crucify Him!’’ And it is to the enemies of Christ that many of you are going.
I. This Question is a very Personal Question. It is, ‘‘What shall 7 do with Christ?’’ No one else can decide this for you. You will accept Christ for yourself or reject Christ for yourself. And you will go to heaven for yourself or go to hell for yourself.
II. The Question is furthermore, “What Shall I Do with JESUS?’’ Not what shall I do with some creed, not what shall I do with the church, but, ‘‘What shall I do with Jesus Christ?’’
III. The Question again is, “What shall I DO with Jesus?’’ Not what shall I think about Him. God tells us very plainly in His Word what we ought to do with Jesus. 1. First of all we should listen to Jesus. 2. But it is not enough to merely listen to Jesus Christ. We should also accept Him (John 1: 12) as our atoning Saviour Who gave His life in our place, as our
Deliverer from sin’s power, as our Teacher to whom we shall surrender the control of our thoughts, and as our Lord to whom we shall surrender the control of our lives.
IV. The next thing which God bids us do with Jesus is to be
baptized in His name. Acts 2: 8.
V. Obey Him. John rq: 21, 23.
VI. Serve Him. John 12: 26.
VII. Follow Jesus Christ. John 12: 26.
VIII. Worship Him. Heb. 1: 6.
FALSE CHRISTS AND FALSE PROPHETS
“False Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and
wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. But take ye heed,
behold I have foretold you all things.’”’ Mark 13: 22, 23.
InrRoDuUcTIoN. — These words of the real Christ are very
solemn. In them He tells us that false prophets are coming and warns us to be on our guard against them. The false prophets and the false Christs are here. There are many who take it for granted that if any man or woman makes great claims, those claims must be true, especially if they support those claims by reports of sickness healed and other wonders wrought. But Christ not only told us that false Christs and false prophets would appear, but He has told us that signs and wonders so remarkable would be wrought that they would mislead, if possible, the very elect. I. How escape?
How can we escape from the snare of these false Christs
and false prophets if they show such signs and wonders.
This all-important question is answered in the Bible.
There are five simple rules which if followed will save
one from the snare of any or every false Christ and false
prophet.
x. You will find the first rule in John 7:17. A will wholly surrendered to God gives clearness of vision to detect error.
2. The second rule is in 2 Tim. 3:13-17. When one has surrendered his will wholly to God the safeguard against deceivers and false prophets is the study of the Word of God. Act 20:29, 30. Study the whole book.
3. The third rule is found in Jas. 1:5-7. Prayer to God for wisdom will save us from many a snare.
4. The fourth rule is found in Matt. 23: 8-10. Call no man master, acknowledge no man as authority, accept the authority of no one and nothing but Christ and the Bible in matters of faith and religion.
5. The fifth rule is found in Prov. 29:25. If you wish to escape the snare of all false prophets and false Christs put away all fear of man and fear of the devil and trust in God.
MAN’S RIGHT ATTITUDE BEFORE GOD
“Nay but; O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus?” Rom. 9: 20.
INTRODUCTION. — There can be no more important or fundamental question than that of our right attitude before God. If we are in right relations to God we are in the way to be in right relations to all God’s creatures, to all men and all things. If we are in wrong relations to God we are bound to be in wrong relations to all men and all things, to the whole universe that God made and governs.
I. First of all we should have a sense of our comparative nothingness.
God is infinite, we are finite. Is. 40:15, 17. This sense
of our comparative nothingness should have three phases:
1. We should bear in mind God’s infinite majesty and our utter insignificance.
2. We should bear in mind the infinite wisdom of God and our utter ignorance.
3. We should bear in mind the infinite holiness of God and our utter vileness in comparison with Him.
II. The second characteristic of our attitude toward God should be trust.
We should trust God perfectly, we should have absolute unquestioning confidence in Him. ‘‘Blessed is the man who trusteth in Jehovah.’’ Jehovah is Infinitely Great, an awful gulf yawns between us and Him, but Jehovah is infinitely good and is worthy of the absolute confidence of the smallest and the greatest of His creatures.
ITI. But there should be one more characteristic of our attitude toward God. Not only humility and trust, but boldness. Heb. 10:20. He is infinite in majesty, infinite in wisdom, infinite in holiness; but the atoning blood of Jesus has put away our sins and made us sons of God, so that we no longer receive a Spirit of bondage again unto fear, but a Spirit of adoption, and look right up into the face of that infinite majesty, that infinite wisdom, that infinite holiness and call Him Father..
INFAMOUS INGRATITUDE
“Even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.’’ 2 Pet. 2:1.
InTRODUCTION. — There is no sin more heartily and universally despised among men than ingratitude. The basest of -all ingratitude is the denial of Jesus Christ who bought us, bought us at the cost of immeasurable agony and pain, bought us at the cost of His own blood. There is no one to whom we owe so much as to Jesus Christ. No one has ever brought so much to us. He brings us pardon for all our sins, if we will have it. He brings us peace that passeth all understanding. He brings us joy such as the world never dreamed of, joy unspeakable and full of glory. He brings us an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away, laid up in store for us in heaven. He makes us heirs of God and joint heirs with Himself. Not only has He brought to us infinitely more than any other ever brought, or all others put together ever brought, He has suffered more for us than any other ever suffered. Phil 2: 6-3.
I. Who are Denying the Lord? 1. First of all the infidels, agnostics, skeptics and unitarians are denying the Lord.
2. There are many who believe in Jesus Christ, who believe that He is the Son of God, who believe all the Bible says about His life and death, about His atonement and His salvation, but they have never confessed Him publicly before the world. You are denying the Lord that bought you.
3. Many church members deny the Lord that bought them. You deny Christ in your business, you deny Christ in ‘your social life, you deny Christ in your politics, you deny Christ in many places. When religion is sneered at in the place where you work you haven’t courage to stand up like a man and say quietly but firmly, ‘‘Men, I don’t agree with you. I believe in this Bible and in this Christ you sneer at. I know Jesus Christ is a Divine Saviour. He has saved me, He fills my life with joy, and He is my Lord.”’
4. Men who profess to be ministers of Christ, who set the authority of those whom they regard as scholars above the authority of Jesus Christ, and who care more for a reputation, for originality and scholarship than they do for the honor of Jesus Christ their Lord. There are men in the pulpit who are itching for that applause and are denying their Lord to get it. They would rather be untrue to Jesus Christ than to be considered behind the times.
II. Why Men Deny Their Lord.
1. Many do it out of cowardice.
2. For gain.
3. From pride.
4. Love of man,
A STRANGE HATRED
«They hated me without a cause.” John 15: 25,
InTropDucTion. — No other man has lived on this earth who has been so unanimously and so bitterly hated as Jesus Christ.
TEXTUAL SERMONS git
I. Hated by Men of His Own Day.
1. When He was here on earth He was hated by all
classes of society.
2. The hatred of Jesus Christ was as bitter as it was universal.
3. This hatred of Jesus Christ was without a cause; it was wholly gratuitous.
II. Hatred of Men To-day. As we read this history of the past it seems incredible that the men of Christ’s day should have so hated Him; but He is just as bitterly hated to-day. The hatred of Jesus Christ to-day is not usually so outspoken as when He was here on earth, but it is no less real. There are many ways in which men show this hatred of Jesus Christ.
1. One of the commonest ways in which men show their hatred of Jesus Christ is by the delight they take in the fall of any man who bears the name of Christ or. professes to be His disciple.
2. Hatred of Jesus Christ also shows itself in talking about and magnifying the inconsistencies of Christians.
3. Hatred of Jesus Christ shows itself in the persecution
of those who believe in and confess Him.
4. Hatred of Jesus Christ is shown by attempts to disprove the truth of the record of Christ’s life found in the four Gospels.
5. Hatred of Jesus Christ is shown by attempts to rob Him of the glory that is rightfully His. To Jesus Christ belongs divine honor, glory and adoration.
6. Men sometimes show their hatred of Jesus Christ by a simple refusal to have Him rule over them. Luke 19:14. This hatred of Christ is still without a cause. It is wholly gratuitous.
(a) It is true that Jesus Christ does condemn sin and demand that men should forsake it, and that is the reason many hate Him.
(b) It is true that Jesus Christ demands absolute surrender, and that is why many hate Him. There is no just cause for hating Christ. There is abundant cause why we should love Him.
(1) What He brings.
(2) What He has sacrificed.
SALVATION FOR EVERYBODY
“The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.”” Rom. 1: 16.
InTRODUCTION.. — There are some people who think that God has provided salvation for just a chosen few. That isa great mistake. God has provided salvation for everybody. There are three great truths in our text:
I. There is something that has power to save anybody and everybody.
II. That something that has power to save anybody and everybody is the Gospel.
1. Some of you may ask how I know the Gospel of Christ
has power to save anybody. (1) Because this book
says so. (2) Because I have seen it save men and
women of all classes.
2. What is it to ‘‘save’’?
(a) To save first of all is to save from guilt.
(b) To save is to save from the power of sin.
(c) To save is to save from the eternal consequences of sin.
3. But whom can the Gospel of Christ thus save? Anybody and everybody.
(a) First of all it can save outcasts.
(b) The Gospel can save infidels, the most determined
and bitter infidels.
(c) The Gospel can save scholars.
(d) The Gospel can save deluded people.
(e) The Gospel can save moralists.
. Nothing but the Gospel has this power to save.
It takes the power of God to save, and the Gospel of
Christ is the only thing that has the power of God in it. 5. What is the Gospel? Gospel means glad tidings orb good news. What is the good news that saves?
urn. tox Cor: ‘15 3/44.
(a) The good news is then, first, ‘‘That Christ died for our sins.’’ Gal. 3:13; 2 Cor. 5:21. °
(b) The good news is, second, that Christ was buried. He was buried and my sin was all buried with Him.
(c) Third, ‘‘He rose again.”’
He is a living Saviour and has all power in
heaven and on earth, and however weak I am
when I have to fight the world, the flesh and
the devil, Ican look up to this living Almighty
Saviour and trust Him to give me victory.
III. The Way to Experience this saving power of the Gospel in our own lives is by simply believing the Gospel: ‘‘To everyone who believeth.’’ Believes what? The Gospel.
WHAT MUST I DO TO BE DAMNED? “He that believeth not shall be damned.”’ Mark 16: 16.
InTRODUCTION. — The word damned has largely fallen into disuse partly because it is used so much by profane people, partly because we live in an easy-going way that recoils from a vigorous statement of unpleasant truths. Damned means condemned, condemned of God, but damned is a much more vigorous word than condemned; it carries much more meaning to the average mind. It summons at once before our imagination all the awful consequences of being condemned of God. We will let the text stand there as it reads in the A. V. ‘‘He that believeth not shall be damned.’’ Any man who hears the Gospel and persistently refuses to believe it and receive it shall be damned. All any one needs to do to be saved, saved to the uttermost, is to believe on the Lord Jesus. All that any one needs to do to be damned, damned to the uttermost, is to refuse to believe on the Lord Jesus. It is not necessary in order to be damned that one be what the world calls a wicked person.
1. First of all the man who does not believe the Gospel
and believe in Jesus Christ must be damned, because every man isa sinner and God is holy, and if man does not find some way in which the sin that separates between him, a sinner, and the Holy God, can be put away, he must necessarily be separated from God forever, and separation from God is damnation; and the only way in which sin can be put away from between us and God is by the atoning death of Jesus Christ, and the one condition upon which that atoning death avails for you or me is that we believe on Him who died, therefore if we will not believe on Him we must be damned.
2. Refusing to believe on Jesus Christ is in itself a damnable sin, and reveals a damnable state of heart.
GOD IS LOVE
“God is Love.” John 4:8.
InTRoDuUcTION. — The world would never have known that God is love had not God revealed it in His Word. We must go, then, to the Bible for the interpretation of it. How, according to the Bible, is the love of God manifested?
I. Is. 48:14, 20, 21. God’s love manifests itself. in His ministering to our needs and joy.
II. Heb. 12:6-11. God’s love manifests itself in His chastening us, in His sending us trial and pain and sorrow and bereavement..
III. Is. 63:9. God’s love is manifested by His sympathizing with us in our afflictions.
IV. God’s love is manifested again in His never forgetting those He loves. Is. 49: 15, 16.
V. God’s love manifests itself in His forgiving our sins. Iss.36:.07 41S, 66 37:
God will not pardon sin of we hold on to it. There isa
fancy about God’s love that because God is love He will
pardon and save all men whether they repent and believe on Christ or not. It is wholly unscriptural. To believe it you must give up the Bible, but if you give up the
Bible you must give up your belief that God is love, for
it is from the Bible we learn it, and there is no other proof. One of the most illogical systems in the world is universalism.
VI. God’s love is manifested in His giving His own Son to die in our place. John 3:16; 1 John 4: 10. This manifestation of God’s love is stupendous, it is almost past believing, but it is true.
Conciusion. — Such is the love of God. What are you
going to do with that love?
THE MOST WONDERFUL THING IN THE WORLD
‘God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’’ John 3:16.:
InTRODuUCTION. — The most wonderful thing in the world
is the love of God.
I. The Objects of God’s Love. ‘The World.” 1. Men of. all races. 2. Men of all classes. That God should love the good we can understand, but that God should love the vile, the outcast, the worthless, the vicious, the criminal, that is the thing that is hard of comprehension, but that is what the Bible tells us. That is what the Bible emphasizes. Rom. 5:7, 8. II, The Character of God’s Love. 1. It is a pardoning love. Is. 55:7; Ps. 32:3, 4. 2. It is a chastening love. Heb. 12:6. 3. It is asympathizing love. Is. 63:9. 4. It is a long-suffering love. 2 Pet. 3:9. 5. It is a self-sacrificing love. John 3: 16.
III. Our Treatment of God’s Love.
1, Accepting His love. The result of yielding to God’s love is eternal life.. John 3: 16.
2. Rejecting His love. What is the result of rejecting
His love?
(a) First of all, awful guilt.
(b) The loss of eternal life. John 5: 40.
(c) Awful punishment. Heb, 10: 26-31.
GOD LOVES THE WHOLE WORLD ‘‘Ror God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’’ John 3: 16.
InTRODUCTION. — This is perhaps the most remarkable statement the world ever heard. There are volumes packed into that little sentence. The verse tells us God’s attitude toward the world, God’s attitude toward sin, God’s attitude toward His Son, God’s attitude toward all who believe in Jesus Christ, and God’s attitude toward all who do not believe on Jesus Christ.
I. God’s Attitude toward the World.
Love.
II. God’s Attitude toward Sin. Our text shows us that God’s attitude toward sin is hate.
III. God’s Attitude toward His Son. ‘‘His only-begotten Son.’’ God’s attitude toward His Son is love. But God gave that Son He so infinitely loved, that Son who from all eternity has been the object of His delight. God gave that only begotten Son for the world, for you and for me.
IV. God’s Attitude toward Believers and Unbelievers.
1. God’s attitude toward believers is to give them eternal life.
2. God’s attitude toward those who will not believe. With great grief and reluctance God withdraws from them the infinite gift He has purchased at such cost and which they will not have. He leaves them to sperish:s.
A‘“‘GOOD MAN” LOST AND A BAD MAN SAVED
Luke 18: 9-14.
InTRODUCTION. — Some of you may think I have this subject twisted, and that it ought to read: A good man saved and a bad man lost. But it is right just as it is. Jesus Christ Himself has given us the picture of the good man and the bad man, and Jesus Himself is responsible for the statement that the good man was lost and the bad man saved.
I. The Good Man Who was Lost.
1. We notice first of all that he was a moral man in his personal habits.
2. Square in his business relations.
Highly-respected member of society.
4. The Pharisee saw no flaw in himself. He was the best man — in his own estimation — that he knew. (R. V.)
5. This Pharisee was a religious man.
6. This Pharisee was a generous man. He could tell God that he gave a tenth of all he made. But he was lost. Why? For precisely the same reason that many here to-night are lost.
(a) He trusted in himself, v. 9.
(b) He despised others.
(c) He did not acknowledge himself a sinner.
(d) He did not cry to God for mercy.
II. The Bad Man Who was Saved.
. First note he had been an immoral man.
. He had been irreligious.
. He was looked down upon by his fellow men.
. He saw many faults in himself.
Why was this Man Saved?
He saw himself a lost sinner.
He saw he could do nothing to save himself.
He saw that there was a God of mercy.
He just cried to this God to have mercy upon him.
He was in earnest.
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FOUND OUT “Be sure your sin will find you out.” Num. 32: 23.
InTRoDucTION. — No man can escape his own sins. No man ever committed a single sin that he did not pay for it in some way. No man ever committed a single sin by which he was not a loser. There never has been asin committed in this earth that paid.
I. How Men’s Sins Find Them Out.
1. Men’s sins find them out by the execution of human laws.
. Men’s sins find them out in their own bodies.
. Sin finds us out in our characters. For every sin you commit you will suffer its character. Every sin breeds a moral ulcer.
4. Again your sin will find you out in your own conscience.
In your feelings.
In your children. That is one of the most awful things about sin; its curse falls not only upon us but upon our children also.
7. Your sin will find you out in eternity. This present
life is not all. There is a future life, and our acts and their consequences will follow us into it.
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Conc iusion. — Is there a man here to-night contemplating sin? Don’t doit. But many of us have sinned already and our sins are finding us out already. What shall we do? Fly to Christ. Gal. 3:13.
NO PEACE “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”” Is. 57: 21.
INTRODUCTION. — It is better to have peace in one’s heart and deep poverty than to have overflowing plenty and no peace. To have no peace means to be in hell.
I. Who are the Wicked?
All men and women who refuse to bow to the rightful authority of Almighty God and obey Him whatever He may command are wicked. God’s first and fundamental demand on men is that they believe on His Son Jesus Christ and accept Him as Saviour and Lord. 1 John 3:23; John 6:29. Every one therefore who does not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and accept Him as their Saviour and Lord is a rebel against God and belongs to that class whom God designated as ‘‘the wicked.’’
II. No Peace for the Wicked.
1. First of all there is no peace with God.
2. In the next place there is no peace in their own souls, There are several things that rob the wicked man of peace:
(a) Conscience.
(b) The fear of calamity.
(c) The fear of man.
(d) The fear of death.
(e) The fear of eternity.
3. There is no peace for the wicked in the life to come.
NO HOPE
‘‘Having no hope.’’ Eph. 2: 12.
“Others which have no hope.’’ 2 Thess. 4: 13.
InTRoDuUcTION. — There are no words in the language more
dreadful than those two: ‘‘No hope.”’
I. Who have no Hope.
There are three classes who have no hope:
1. The man who denies or doubts the existence of a personal God, a wise, mighty, and loving ruler of this universe, has no hope. He may cherish fond wishes about the future, but wishes are not hope. Hope is a well-founded expectation.
2. The man who denies the truth of the Bible has no hope. He has no expectation for the future that has a solid and certain foundation underneath it.
3. The man who believes in the Bible but does not accept and confess the Christ it presents as his own personal Saviour and Master has no hope.
The Bible holds out absolutely no hope to any except those who accept the Saviour whom it is man’s purpose to reveal. John 3:36; Heb. ro: 26-30.
II. In what Sense have these three Classes no Hope? 1. They have no hope, no well-founded and sure expectation of blessedness for the life that now is. (a) In the first place they have no guarantee of continued prosperity.
(b) They have no guarantee of continued capacity to enjoy prosperity even if it continues. (c) They have no guarantee of continued life. 2. But infinitely worse than this is the fact that they have no hope for the life that is to come. (a) The man out of Christ has no hope of blessedness after death. (b) No hope of glad reunion with friends who have gone or may go. (c) No hope of pardon. (d) No hope of escape from the wrath of God against sin and unbelief. Rom. 6: 23.
III. The Believer in Christ has Hope.
1. He has hope for the life that now is. Rom. 8: 28;
Phil. 46,.7, 2975 ROM. 3247.
2. Hope for the life to come. Tit. 1:2.
Conciusion. — Which do you prefer to-night, the no hope of men out of Christ, or the glorious hope of Christians? You have your choice. Which will you take?
FALSE HOPES
“Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name have done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.’’ Matt. 7: 22, 23.
InrrRopucTion. — We see clearly from this text that there are many who expect to enter the kingdom of heaven who will not succeed, many who expect to spend eternity in heaven who will spend eternity in hell.
I. What are some of the False Hopes Men Entertain?
1. The hope that ‘God is too good to damn any one.’’
(a) A very sad confession for any man to make who is living a life of sin is that he believes in the goodness of God. What shall we say, then, of the man who is living in sin, who tramples God’s holy will under foot, who breaks God’s laws, and makes God’s goodness an excuse for doing it?
(b) What proof is there in the Bible or history or experience that God is too good to punish the wicked ?-” 2° Pet); 33/9.
(c) But not only is the hope that God is too good to
punish men for sin and the rejection of Christ
contrary to Scripture, it is also contrary to the
teachings of history and experience.
2. The hope of being saved by our own goodness. Rom.
220-7 Gal, 3% 10;
3. The hope that a man can be saved by a mere religious profession. ‘This is the false hope of the text quoted. 4. The hope that a man can be saved by a faith that does not lead a man to quit sin. Jas. 2:14, R. V.; 1 John
5:4) 5-
5. The hope that a man can be saved without being born
again. John 3:3.
SPEECHLESS BEFORE GOD
‘‘And he was speechless.’’ Matt. 22:14.
I. What is the wedding garment? Rev. 19:7, 8; Eph. 4: 24; Rev. 13:14. The wedding garment is righteousness and true holiness of character. It is Christ Himself. If we are to appear at that supper and keep our places, then we must be clothed with righteousness of heart and life, we must be clothed with true holiness, we must put on Christ Himself so that the beauty of Christ is seen in our lives.
II. Why the one not having on a wedding garment is cast out. 1. First because he is not fit for heavenly society.
Heaven is a prepared place for prepared people, a
holy place for holy people.
2. Because it is his own fault that he has not on a wedding garment.
Conciusion. — Have you on the wedding garment? The
time for the wedding supper is fast drawing nigh.
PATHS TO PERDITION
“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.”’
Matt. 7: 13.
I. The shortest path to perdition, the straightest and quickest way there is, is suicide. II. The second path to perdition is impurity.
1. First of all impurity breeds unbelief in God and Christ and the Bible.
2. Impurity entangles people in relations that it is hard to get out of, and that one cannot remain in and be saved. Hell will be crowded with adulterers and adulteresses.
3. The next path to perdition is the love of money. 1
am. 46:19;
(a) It leads to dishonest methods of acquiring money.
(b) The consuming love for money blinds many men
to the fact that there is anything but money
worth striving for, so they leave their souls and
their eternal interests utterly neglected.
(c) Many who love money, when they are awakened
to the fact that they have a soul and that it is lost
won’t come to Christ for fear they will have to
give this money up if they do.
. Love of pleasure is another path to perdition. Infidelity. 2 Thess. 1: 7-9; Mark 16:15, 16, R. V. 6. Reliance upon a mere profession of religion. Matt. 7:
21-23,
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7. Putting off your conversion. Prov. 27:1; Prov. 29:1.
THE FAILURE OF JESUS CHRIST
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!’ Matt. 23:37, 38.
InTRODUCTION. — These are among the most tender, pathetic, painful and passionate words that ever fell from the lips of Him who spake as never man spake. It is the utterance of a heart that was aching for a love and trust that were denied it, and well-nigh breaking with a sense of disappointment at the utter failure of cherished desires.
I. The First Lesson is that All Christ’s Efforts sometimes Fail. II. The Second Thought of the Text is Why Jesus Christ Fails.
III.
It is put in the text in three words, ‘‘ye would not.’’ ‘I would;’’ ye would not. The Results of Failure.
*‘Behold your house is left unto you desolate.’’ The result of the failure of Jesus Christ is utter desolation for the
one in whom He fails.
AN IDIOTIC BARGAIN
‘What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose
his own soul?’ Mark 8: 36.
I. Note First the Things Which are Contrasted.
1. The things which are contrasted are not the present
and the future.
It is true that the man who loses his soul does lose the future — the eternal future — but he does not gain the present. The one whose soul is saved does not lose the present to gain the future. He does indeed gain the future, the eternal future. He does not lose the present to gain it.
2. The things which are contrasted are the world and the
soul. The world, the seen, tangible world, the world of sense and all it can give, money, pleasure, honor, ‘‘the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the pride of life’’ (1 John 2:16). That is the one thing. The other is the soul, or the life. The man himself, the unseen, inner, real man. To lose our soul or life, is to lose ourselves, to lose true manhood, to fail of what God created us and intended us to be, to have the image of God rubbed out and the image of the devil stamped in its place, to lose all that is divinest and grandest about us, and with it to lose true peace, true joy, true and abiding glory and renown, the esteem of God, co-heirship with Christ, the ‘‘inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away which is laid up for us in heaven.”’
3. Many are trading their souls for far less than the whole world.
II. Is there any Danger of Losing our Souls.
Yes. How do men lose their souls?
1. By persistence in sin.
a. The rejection of Christ.
Conc.usion. — Every one out of Christ is losing his soul. Every year the ruin becomes more complete. And it will go on until the last spark of true manhood is extinguished, until the last trace of the Divine image is obliterated, until the last breath of peace is vanished, until the last note of joy is silenced, until the last glimmer of glory is gone out, until the last whisper of approval has died away, until the last phantom of hope has disappeared, until this glorious and undying soul which God made in His own image and which Christ died to save, in hopeless discord with itself, contorted into the very image of Satanic evil, tempest tossed with vile and insatiable passions, scorned by its fellow victims and itself, agonizing over its fathomless woe, nursing to its bosom its inconsolable despair, passes out ‘‘into the outer darkness where there is the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.’’ Is the whole world worth such a sacrifice?
A BRILLIANT AND BITTER INFIDEL CONVERTED
“And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord,’’ Acts 9:1.
‘“‘What shall I do, Lord?’’ Acts 22: ro.
InTRODUCTION. — These texts set before us two scenes in the life of Saul of Tarsus. In the one we see Saul of Tarsus filled with hate of Jesus Christ breathing threatening and slaughter against His disciples, in the other we see the same Saul of Tarsus on his face before Jesus Christ, acknowledging Him as Lord and surrendering the whole control of his life into Jesus’ hands. Saul of Tarsus was the most brilliant and most bitter disbeliever in Jesus Christ the world ever saw; he became the most devoted believer in and servant of Jesus Christ of whom history informs us. We are to study the thrilling conversion of this remarkable man.
I. Why He Was Converted.
x. First of all he was converted because he was sincere.
2. Saul of Tarsus was converted because he studied the Scriptures. Many a skeptic and infidel is not converted because he won’t study the Scriptures.
3. Saul of Tarsus was converted in the third place because he yielded to the light when it came.
II. How the Bitter and Brilliant Infidel Was Converted.
1. First of all the life, character and testimony of Stephen led to his conversion.
2. The second thing that led to the conversion of Saul was prayer. Stephen prayed for him.
3. The third thing that led to Saul’s conversion was that Jesus Christ met him. That was the decisive thing.
4. He cried and cried honestly, ‘‘What shall I do, Lord?”
III. The Results of the Conversion of the Brilliant and Bitter Infidel. 1. Saul of Tarsus became a completely transformed man, a gloriously transformed man. 2. Became a mighty power for good. 3. He obtained priceless possessions for himself. ConcLusion. — Such were the results of his conversion, such will also be the results of your conversion. Will you not then be converted to-night?
A HARD ROAD
“The way of transgressors is hard.” Prov. 13:15,
I. In the Life that now is.
1. Makes an uneasy conscience.
2. Sin will inevitably be followed by exposure.
3. Wherever there is sin there will also be penalty.
(a) One of the penalties of sin is the loss of the confidence of our fellow man, and the consequent loss of opportunity.
(b) A second penalty of sin is the physical penalty. There is the most intimate connection between our bodies and our characters,
(¢) A third penalty of sin isa loss of grip. It isa well-known fact that when sin gets into the lives of business men they oftentimes lose their grip on business, and hurry on to financial ruin, when it enters the lives of artists they often lose their genius and skill, when it enters into the lives of authors their minds become clouded.
(d) A fourth penalty of sin is bondage.
(e) Blindness. Sin robs the sinner of the vision that is most priceless, — moral and spiritual vision.
II. In the Life to Come. The penalties of sin do not end with the life that now is. Sin and suffering forever go hand in hand. If we die sinners we shall go into the next world sinners, and being sinners we shall be sufferers. In this life we may get the first fruits of our sin, but there we get the full harvest.
Conc.Lusion. — What, then, shall the sinnerdo? Is, 55: 7.
HOPELESS CASES
“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” Matt. 7:6.
InTRODUCTION. — It is evident from the text that there are men and women in the world whose case is hopeless. Men and women who are so wedded to sin and swill that itisa waste of time, and worse than a waste of time, to preach God’s truth to them; you might as well cast pearls before swine, you will only be torn for your trouble. As hogs want corn and swill, and not pearls, so these want animal gratification and sin, not truth.
Who are the swine that it is useless and worse than useless to cast pearls of God’s precious truth before?
I. Those Who Are Not Hopeless Cases. 1, The men of no race upon earth are hopeless cases simply because they belong to that race. 2. Great sinners are not hopeless cases. 1 Tim. 1: 15, 3. Skeptics are not hopeless cases.
4. Men who are morally weak, or morally impotent, men who have no will power. 2 Cor. 12: 9.
II. Cases that Are Hopeless.
1. First of all, the cases of men and women who have died without Jesus Christ are hopeless. John 8: 21.
2. The case of any one who has committed the unpardonable sin is hopeless. Matt. 12: 31, 32. What is that sin? Many who think they have committed the unpardonable sin have not approached it.
3. The blindly conceited man. Prov. 26: 12.
4. The man who will not give up sin is a hopeless case.
5. Those who won’t give up their unbelief are also hopeless cases.
6. The man whose conscience is seared by persistent resistance to the Holy Spirit.
ConcLusion. — Some of you who have thought yourselves hopeless cases are not, so turn to Christ and He will save you to-night. But there are some here to-night who do not think their cases hopeless, who indeed are not much concerned about themselves, who are fast hurrying toward a position that is hopeless.
WHERE WILL YOU SPEND ETERNITY? ‘Whither goest thou?” John 16: 5. InTRODUCTION. — The most important question that can face any man when he comes to leave this present world is,
‘‘Whither goest thou?’’ or, ‘‘Where will you spend eternity?”
I. First of all remember there is an eternity.
II. In the next place remember you must spend that eternity somewhere.
III. Remember, in the third place, that the question where you will spend eternity is vastly more important than the question where you will spend your present life.
IV It is possible for us to know where we shall spend eternity.
V. Bear in mind that we will spend eternity in one of two places — in heaven or in hell.
ae HOW TO WORK
VI. Where you will spend eternity will be settled in the life that now is. John 8:24, 21; 2 Cor. 5: 10.
VII. Where you will spend eternity will be determined by what you do with Jesus Christ. John 3: 36; 2 Thess. 1: 7-9.
GOD’S LAST INVITATION “Whosoever will let him take the water of life freely.” Rev. 22:17. InTRODUCTION. — This is God’s last invitation. With it this great book of invitations closes. I. What is the Water of Life?
1. The water of life is the Holy Spirit. John 7: 37-39.
a. The Holy Spirit is a Divine Person who is ready to come into any man’s being and take possession of it and rule it and fill it with joy and peace and beauty.
II. Why the Holy Spirit is called the Water of Life. 1. First of all because He satisfies thirst. John 4: 14. 2. Because He not only satisfies but brings life. John
4:14. The moment you take the Holy Spirit you get
everlasting life.
III. How to Get this Water of Life. “Whosoever Will let him Take.’’ Two words to emphasize then, ‘‘will’’ and ‘‘take.’’
THE NEW BIRTH
‘Ye must be born again.’’ John 3: 7.
InTRoDucTIoN. — Describe circumstances and
I. The Necessity of the New Birth.
1. The necessity of the new birth is absolute. ‘‘Ye must be born again.’’ There is nothing that will take the place of the new birth.
(a) A moral life will not take the place of the new birth.
(b) Quitting your sins is not enough.
(c) Joining the church is not enough.
(d) Being very religious is not enough.
2. This necessity of the new birth is universal. Absolutely no man will enter the Kingdom of God without the new birth. John 3: 3, 7.
II. What is the New Birth. 1. Baptism is not the new birth. Acts 8: 13, 21-23. 2. Church membership is not the new birth. Acts 5: 1-11, 3. Reform is not the new birth. 4. What is the new birth? 2 Cor. 5:17. III. How to be Born Again. John 1:12; John 3: 14, 15. Conc.Lusion. — This doctrine of the new birth sweeps away Jalse hopes, but it substitutes a true hope.
SAVED “For by grace are ye saved through faith.’? Eph. 2:8. I. Who are Saved? Every one who believes in Jesus Christ is saved. Every one who really believes in Jesus as the Son of God and shows that he really believes by taking Jesus to be his own personal Saviour and his Lord and Master. To every such an one God says, as He says in our text to the believers in Ephesus, ‘‘by grace ye ave saved.”’
II. From What we are Saved.
1. From all guilt. 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 John1: 7.
2. From God’s displeasure.
3. I am saved from the condemnation of my own conscience; from remorse.
4. From the power of sin. John 8: 36.
5. From future judgment. John 5: 24; Acts 17:31.
III. To What we are Saved.
1) Lo mpeace and joy.) Rom: §:1;,1 Pet. 1:8.
2, To a true and pure and holy and useful life.
3. To God’s favor.
4. To Sonship. John 1: 12.
5. To eternal life. John 3: 16.
IV. How we are Saved.
1. We are saved by grace,
2. Through faith.
NO SALVATION EXCEPT IN CHRIST “And in none other is there salvation; for neither {is there any other name under heaven given among men wherein we must be saved.’’ Acts OBR SEEN EE I. There is Salvation in Jesus Christ. 1. In the first place it is certain because the Bible says so. 2. It is certain because experience proves it.
(a) Jesus Christ saves from the guilt of sin.
(b) Jesus Christ also saves from the power of sin.
(c) Jesus Christ not only saves from the guilt of sin and the power of sin, but from the future penalty of sin.
3. Thissalvation is for all who will accept it. Acts 10: 43.
II. There is no Salvation out of Christ. 1. This is plain from Scripture. Text: 2 Thess. 1: 7-9. 2. Experience proves the same thing. Where is the man who has found salvation out of Christ? (a) Where is the man out of Christ who has found ’ salvation from the guilt of sin?
(b) There is no salvation from the power of sin out of Jesus.
(c) But as there is no salvation from the guilt of sin or the power of sin out of Christ, there can certainly be no salvation from the penalty of sin.
3. How great, then, is the folly of those who ask us to give up Christianity because of difficulties of one kind or another!
III. To be Lost, all that is Necessary is simply to Neglect this Salvation that Jesus Christ Brings.
1. In order to be lost it is not necessary to commit any grave offences against decency or morality.
2. No conscious or outspoken rebellion against God is necessary in order to be lost.
3. No speaking against, contempt or spitting upon the salvation God has so graciously provided is necessary in order to be lost.
4. It is not even necessary to make a decided refusal to Jesus Christ’s invitation to come to Him and be saved,
FORGIVEN “Thy sins are forgiven.’’ Luke 7: 48. InTRoDUCTION. — These are very simple words but they are very blessed words and very wonderful words. They are specially wonderful when we consider Who spoke them and to whom He spoke them. Picture scene Matt. 11:28; Luke 7: 36-50. They teach us several very important lessons.
I. That Jesus Christ has power to Forgive Sins.
Many claim this power. Jesus has it.
II. There is Forgiveness for the Vilest Sinner.
III. This Forgiveness is to be had Now.
IV. All that one has to Do to Get this Forgiveness is just to Believe. v. 50.
WHY I AM GLAD I AM A CHRISTIAN «Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.’’ 2 Cor. 9:5. InTRoDucTIoN. — The unspeakable or indescribably great and glorious gift of this verse is Jesus Christ. Jesus is God’s greatest gift and in Him all other good gifts are included. John 3:16; Rom. 8:32. My heart and all that is within me echoes the words of Paul. I do thank God for Jesus Christ and am so glad that I have taken Him for my Saviour and surrendered to Him as my Lord and Master.
I. Why I am Glad I am a Christian.
1. In the first place I am glad I am a Christian because I
know that my sins are all forgiven. The Christian
knows that every sin that he ever committed is
blotted out. How does he know it?
(a) First by God’s own statement to that effect.
Acts 10:43; 1 John 1:9; 1 John 1: 7.
(b) By the testimony of the Holy Spirit. Acts
10: 43, 44.
2. Because Jesus Christ has set me free from sin’s power.
3. Because I know that Iama child of God. John 1: 12. (a) I know it, first, because His book says so.
(b) I know it for the Spirit of God bears witness with my spirit that I am a child of God. Rom. 8:16.
4. Iam glad I am a Christian because I have been delivered from all anxiety and fear. Phil. 4:6, 7.
5. Because I have found a deep and abiding and overflowing joy. 1 Pet. 1:8.
6. Because I know I shall live forever. 1 John 2:17.
7. Iam glad that Iam a Christian because I know that I have an ‘‘inheritance, incorruptible,’’ etc. 1 Pet.
Lo 4,/5,
GOD’S TESTIMONY TO JESUS CHRIST
“And lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”’ Matt. 3: 17.
IntRopucTion. — The most fundamental and important question in religion is, Is Jesus Christ the Son of God? If He is, your duty and mine is clear. If He isn’t, then while our duty on many great questions may not be clear, some things at least are settled. On many occasions and in many ways God has testified that Jesus Christ is His Son. It is not only in times lying in the past, of which we have a record in that unique book the Bible, but also in our own day, that God is bearing testimony, that He is His Son.
I. God Testifies that Jesus is His Son in the Passage before us.
With an audible voice from heaven. (Describe scene.) That settled it. There is no more room for controversy or debate or doubt. ‘‘But,’’ some will say, ‘‘suppose this didn’t happen? Suppose the record here in Matthew and the other Gospels is a fabrication?’’ The testimony of such witnesses as those to whom we owe those records and who were present and who sealed their testimony with their blood, is to be received against the testimony of those who don’t even claim to have been there, and who didn’t live until centuries afterward, and who admit that they know nothing about it, and who spin their theories not out of any recorded facts but out of theit inner consciousness. It is a question of observed fact against speculative guesses. Which will you believe? Another place where God gave His testimony to Jesus by an audible voice: Transfiguration. Matt. 17:5.
1 Bre
II. God bore Testimony to Jesus Christ by the Miracles He gave
III.
IV.
Him to Do.
John 3:2. For centuries the enemies of Christ have been trying to invent a theory to discredit these Gospel stories. Every effort has failed utterly. One theory is set up simply to give way to another. But if Jesus did these things, His claims are established by facts.
God has borne Witness to Jesus Christ by the Resurrection from the Dead.
The certainty of the resurrection. This settles the question. Jesus’ claims. Put to death for making them. Claims that God would set His seal to this claim by raising Him. God did this. God’s testimony by the resurrection absolutely unanswerable.
God Himself bore Witness to Jesus Christ by His Ascension. To this there were many witnesses. At least eleven. Luke 20: 50, 51; Acts 1:6-9. This Ascension settles the question of Christ’s Sonship.
V. God bore Witness to Jesus Christ by the Gift of the Holy Spirit.
VI.
The coming of the Holy Spirit was a conclusive proof of Jesus’ claims that He was the Son of God and that He was going to the Father. When the Holy Spirit came upon them so unmistakably the disciples knew for a certainty that Jesus was with the Father and had received for them the Holy Spirit as He promised. Acts 2: 32, 33.
Not only did God give the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in Testimony to Jesus’ Divinity! God gives the Holy Spirit to-day to those who Accept Him as Divine and Surrender their Wills to Him.
Acts 5: 28-32. This is a very practical, present-day proof.
VII. God bears Testimony to-day that Jesus Christ is the Son of
God in another way, and that is by the Transforming Power of Christ in the Soul.
Jesus Christ proves Himself Divine to those who accept Him as Divine. The question of whether or not Jesus is the Son of God may be settled by an appeal to God’s
testimony to Jesus Christ in the past, but it may be also
settled by an appeal to God’s testimony to Jesus Christ to-day.
Conc.usion. — In seven ways, then, God has borne testimony to Jesus Christ that He is His Son. This, then, is the question that confronts every one here to-night who is out of Christ, ‘‘What shall I do with the Son of God?’’
LOST — SAVED
“The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 1g: 10.
InrRopucTION. — That verse contains two short words that have a world of meaning in them. One of the words has a whole world of light init. The other word has a world of darkness in it.
I. Lost.
Our text suggests the great truth that every soul out of Christ, every soul that Christ has not definitely saved, is lost.
1. In that you are a sinner.
2. Slaves of sin. John 8: 34.
3. All out of Christ are lost in that if they do not turn to Christ they will be lost eternally. Every man out of Christ is lost now and he will be lost eternally unless Christ saves him.
II. Saved.
Here our text comes in with its message of hope and joy.
You are lost, but the Son of Man came to seek and to
save that which was lost.
1. He is seeking to save you.
(a) by His providence.
(1) That is why you are here to-night.
(2) Death of child.
(3) Sickness, etc.
(b) By His Spirit.
(c) By His Word.
2. He can save.
(a) From guilt of sin.
(b) From power of sin.
(c) He came to seek the utterly lost.
ConcLusion. — Every man or woman will go out of here to-night lost or saved.
A CONVERTED INFIDEL’S PREACHING
*“‘And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the the Son of God.” Acts 9: 20, R. V.
INTRODUCTION. — There was perhaps never a more amazed audience than that one that heard Saul’s first sermon in Damascus. (Describe circumstances.) The first thing I want you to look at is the preacher in the text, the second thing to look at is the preacher’s message.
I. The Preacher.
Three good reasons why this particular preacher’s message should command attention and be accepted, taken together they prove that the message is undoubtedly true.
1. First of all, he had been an enemy of Jesus whom He
now proclaimed to be the Son of God. The doctrine that Jesus was the Son of God was not something that Saul had taken up without any thorough thought. Saul had opposed this doctrine with all the vigor of an intense soul. When a man like that turns completely around and says, ‘‘I was wrong, utterly wrong; Jesus is the Son of God,’’ we ought to give his change of opinion careful attention.
2. Saul’s testimony ought to have great weight for another reason, because of what he sacrificed for his opinion. Saul’s change of opinion cost him much, it cost him. everything of a worldly character that he possessed. When a man of brains and education like Saul of Tarsus makes sacrifices like that for a change of opinion his new opinion must command great consideration.
3. But there is a third reason and a better one yet, why Saul’s opinion must have weight, indeed, the reason is so absolutely conclusive that if we are thoroughly honest we must say Saul was certainly right in what he says, and Jesus, as Saul says, ‘‘the Son of God.”’ That reason is the way in which Saul came to change his opinion.
Saul tells us why he changed his opinion. He says it was because as he came near to Damascus at the noon hour he saw Jesus Himself in such glory that it blinded him, and he heard Jesus say, etc. (Acts 9:5, 6; 22:16-18). Now if Saul really saw Jesus thus in the glory, and Jesus said this, and Saul was commissioned to be His authoritative representative, then Jesus certainly is the Son of God; there is no more room for debate.
Did Saul really see Jesus and hear Him say these things? He says He did. Then Saul either lied, or made the story up, or else he was mistaken, or had a sunstroke or something of that sort. Did he lie and make the story up? Men do not manufacture lies for the sake of sacrificing home, position, money, comfort, ease and everything dear in life for them. Was Saul the victim of delusion and fancy through sunstroke, or overwrought imagination or something of that kind? The recorded and well-attested facts in the case make this theory impossible.
Some one may say that the whole story in Acts is a fiction. Let him study it. I challenge any honest lawyer or historical critic to study these stories and say they do not bear the unmistakable marks of truth. We arrive, then, at this point: that Saul of Tarsus changed from a bitter infidel to a believer and preacher, that Jesus is the Son of God because Jesus Himself appeared to him in glory as the Son of God. Saul actually saw Him, and He appointed Saul His authoritative representative. It is then absolutely settled not as a theological speculation but as an established fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
II. The Message.
1. It is not that Jesus is a good man or even the best man that ever walked the earth. ‘‘Jesus is the Son of God.”
2. Not merely Jesus is a great teacher, but Jesus is the Son of God.
3. Not merely Jesus is a perfect man and our example, but Jesus is the Son of God.
4. Jesus is the Son of God. What does that involve?
(a) Absolute and whole-hearted trust in Him.
(b) Trusting Him for salvation.
(c) Surrender of our life to Him.
(d) Surrender of our thought to Him.
(e) There is saving power in the doctrine that Jesus is the Son of God. It will save any man who believes it from the heart and acts upon it.
(x) It will bring Him life eternal. John 2o: 31.
(2) It will bring victory over the world. 1 John
5:5.
THE APPALLING SIN OF UNBELIEF IN JESUS CHRIST “He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God,” John 3: 18. IntRopuction. — The failure to put faith in Jesus Christ is not a misfortune, it is a sin, a grievous sin, an appalling sin, a damning sin.
I. Unbelief in Jesus Christ is an Appalling Sin Because of Whom
Jesus Christ is. Because of the Dignity of His Person, Jesus Christ is the Son of God. A dignity attaches to Jesus Christ that attaches to the person of no angel, or archangel, to none of the principalities or powers in the heavenly places. His is the name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. An injury done to Jesus Christ is, then, a sin of vastly greater magnitude than a sin done to man.
II. In the Second Place Unbelief in Jesus Christ is an Appalling Sin not only Because of the Dignity of Christ’s Person but also Because Faith is the Supreme Thing Which is Due to Him. Jesus is worthy many things. But first of all, underlying all else, Jesus Christ is worthy of faith, man’s confidence is due Jesus Christ.
III. Because Jesus Christ is the Incarnation of all the Infinite Moral Perfections of God’s Own Being. ‘God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.’’ This infinite absolute light which God is, this infinite holiness and love and truth, is incarnated in Jesus Christ; and the refusal.to accept Him is the refusal of light and choice of darkness.
IV. Unbelief in Jesus Christ is an Appalling Sin, Because it is Trampling Under Foot the Infinite Love and Mercy of God. Jesus Christ is the supreme expression of God’s love and mercy to sinners. John 3: 16.
Conc.Lusion. — It is as clear as day that unbelief in Jesus Christ is an appalling sin. Theft is a gross sin, adultery is worse, murder is shocking, but all these are as nothing to the violation of the dignity and majesty of the person of Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, by our unbelief. Give up your awful unbelief in Jesus Christ and accept Him to-night.
THE SECRET OF A HAPPY LIFE ‘Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.’’ Phil. 4: 4.
IntTRoDucTION. — Every one wants to be happy. Every ‘one ought to be happy. Every one can be happy. God has provided a way in which we can have joy every moment of our lives.
The secret of a happy life is a wonderful secret. The prescription is simple.
I. The First Ingredient in the Prescription is, Obtain the Forgiveness of Your Sins by Repenting of Them, Confessing Them and Accepting Jesus Christ as Your Saviour.
Ps, 32:1; Is. 55:7; Acts 10: 43.
-TEXTUAL SERMONS PU 39
II. The Second Ingredient in the Prescription is to Obtain the Holy Spirit by Absolute Surrender to God.
Acts 5: 32.
III. The Third Ingredient is Prayer. Frequent Prayer. John 16: 24.
IV. The Fourth Ingredient is Bible Study.
John 15: 11.
DAVID’S SIN
“The thing that David had done displeased the Lord.” 2 Sam. 11:27. IntRoDuctTion. — The story is too horrible for public recital,
though if one will read it in private with earnest prayer he
may find exceedingly precious lessons in it. It was one of
the most horrible and dastardly crimes of history. The record
of it and its consequences has held many back from contemplated sin, and has brought hope to many a despairing heart. The history of David’s sin teaches seven great lessons.
I. That a very good man, if he gets his eyes off from God and His Word, may easily fall into very gross sin.
II. That God never looks upon any man’s sin with the least degree of allowance.
III. That whatsoever a man soweth that he shall also reap, and like the farmer he will reap much more than he sows.
IV. The fourth lesson of David’s sin is that the sin of God’s servants gives great occasions for the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.
V. That the sin of God’s people is base ingratitude toward God.
VI. That there is full and free and abundant pardon for the vilest sinner.
VII. Pardon is found by the confession of our sin, Cf. Ps. 32: 1-5; Luke 18: 10-14.
JOYS OF THE CHRISTIAN “Rejoice always.” 1 Thess. 6: 16. IntTRopucTIon. — There are three things that Christians should do constantly: rejoice, pray, and give thanks. 1 Thess. 5: 16-18. Constant rejoicing, unceasing prayer, continual thanksgiving — this is God’s will in Christ Jesus regarding us. ‘‘Rejoice always.” That is our duty, that is also our privilege. God has made it possible for us to constantly rejoice. How much more our lives and our testimony would count for Christ if only we did rejoice always.
I. Joy of Sins Forgiven.
P8332 31.
II. The Joy of Communion With God.
1 John 1:3; Ps. 16:11. Not only in heaven is there fullness of joy in God’s presence, but in the present life there is
fullness of joy in God’s presence, in communion with Him.
There are three methods of communion with God:
1. The first of these is prayer, breathing out to God the desires of our hearts.
2. The second method of communion is the method of thanksgiving.
3. The third method of communion with God is the method of worship. Worship is different from either prayer or thanksgiving. In prayer we are asking for something; in thanksgiving we are returning thanks for something; in worship we are just bowing before God contemplating and adoring Himself and His Son Jesus Christ.
III. The Joy of Feasting on the Word.
Jer. 15: 16.
IV. The Joy of Victorious Service. There is great joy in serving one we love, and especially is there great joy if our service is effective. The Christian loves Christ; his service of Christ may always be successful and victorious.
V. The Joy of Winning Souls. Few joys this side of heaven so great as the joy of bringing someone else to Christ.
VI. The Joy of Suffering for Christ.
Acts 5: 40.
VII. The Joy of the Holy Spirit.
1 Thess. 1: 6.
TEXTUAL SERMONS 44t
SINCERE BUT NOT SAVED “Send men to Joppa and call for Peter who shall tell thee words, whereby thou shalt be saved.”” Acts 11: 13, 14. InTRoDUCTION. — A man may be a sincere and earnest seeker after truth and still not be a saved man as yet.
I. The Character of Cornelius.
1. He was ‘‘a devout man.’’ It is evident that his devotion was genuine for it affected his whole household, the soldiers under him and his kinsman and his near friends.
But Cornelius was not only a devout man towards God, he was also righteous towards man. V. 22.
Cornelius was a generous man.
Cornelius was a man of prayer.
Cornelius was an eager seeker after more light.
Cornelius was ready to obey the truth when he found it, whatever it might require of him. Altogether this man Cornelius was a man of singularly lofty character, yet with all this the inspired record tells us that Cornelius was not yet saved, that he needed salvation. hearts eek a:
II. How Cornelius was Saved.
1. First of all he prayed for light. 10:31, 32; comp. 10: 22 and 11:13, 14. Cornelius felt that he had not the whole truth. He knew he had not peace. He knew that for all his excellencies he was a sinner and needed pardon, and he sought God to find where pardon could be found.
2. He obeyed the light that God gave him step by step.
There are some who will not take a step until God
shows them the whole way. Such people never find
the way. But if we are ready to take a step ata
time God will lead us into the perfect day.
3. The third step toward salvation was, that he heard the simple Gospel of Christ crucified and risen again, and of remission of sins through simple faith in Him. The sermon Cornelius heard was very short. Peter simply told him a few facts about Jesus. How God ‘preached peace by Him.’’ How ‘‘He was Lord of all... How He had wrought wonders delivering people from the power of Satan. How He had been crucified and raised again. How He had been appointed of God to be ‘‘the Judge of living and dead,’’ and then wound up by saying, ‘*To Him bear all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.’’ That was all he heard and you have all heard it.
4. Then Cornelius took the decisive step. He believed in
Christ right there and was saved at once. As good and exemplary as Cornelius was he was saved in the same way that the coarse, brutal, prayerless, godless Philippian jailer was saved, by faith in Jesus Christ for the pardon of sin. When Peter spoke of the forgiveness of sins he knew he needed it. When Peter said, ‘‘Whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins,’’ he said that means me, and he believed and received remission then and there. One more thing, the Holy Ghost came upon Cornelius then and there in testimony that God had accepted him, and he began to magnify God in the power of the Holy Ghost.
AN OPEN DOOR “Tam the door by me if any man enter in he shall be saved, but shall go in and out, and shall find pasture.’” John ro: 9.
INTRODUCTION. — Wide-awake men are always on the alert for open doors, Some are seeking an open door to wealth, others an open door to fame, others still an open door to power and others an open door to wisdom and learning. One of the chief differences between the men who succeed and the men who fail in this world is, that the former are quick to see the doors which stand open and quick to enter them, and the latter are so slow to see, or so slow to enter, that the door slams in their face while they are standing wondering whether they would better goin or not. An open door which if entered leads to more that is good and glorious than any other door that men have ever entered. Johnio:9. Jesus Christ is the Door.
I. To What is He the Door?
1. He is the door to salvation. ‘By me if any man enter in he shall be saved.’’
2. He is the door to life. John 10:10, R. V.
3. Christ is also the door to liberty and security. ‘‘By me if any man enter in he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and shall find pasture.’’
4. Jesus Christ is also the door to pasture. ‘‘Shall finda
pasture.’’ Food, satisfaction. It is in Christ alone that the soul of man can find pasture, find food, find satisfaction.
II. To Whom is the Door Open? “I am the door; by me ¢f any man enter in, he shall find pasture.’’ That door is open to any man, to every man. Conctusion. — The door stands open to all here. The door will not always stand open. Luke 13: 25.
A PLAIN ANSWER TO A GREAT QUESTION
‘‘And brought them out, and said, Sirs what must I do to be saved? “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.’ Acts 16: 30, 31. IntTRoDucTION. — The question and answer are found in the sixteenth chapter of Acts.
I. The Importance of the Question.
II. The Plain Answer.
1. Note first the confidence of this answer. Thou shalt
be saved. What made Paul so confident?
(a) God had revealed it to him. Gal. 1: 12.
(b) Paul had tried it.
a. Note second the completeness of the answer, ‘‘Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”’ Not helped, not made better, not patched up, but ‘*saved.”’
3. Note third and lastly the simplicity of the answer. ‘‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”’ Can not any one understand that? To believe on any one is to commit yourself to them. To believe ina doctor when you are sick is to put your case in his hands, to surrender yourself to his directions. To believe in a life-boat when you are on a sinking ship is to commit yourself to it, get into it, to surrender yourself to its keeping. 2 Tim. 1: 12. ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.’’ Paul said, Believe in Him as Lord, the Divine One to whom we cry as did Thomas, ‘‘My Lord and my God,’’ Believe in Him as Jesus, 2. e. Saviour, the One who bore our sins in His own body on the tree, the One who, asa risen One in the place of power at God’s right hand, saves from the power of sin day by day. Believe in Him as Christ; God’s anointed king, to whom we shall render our homage and obedience. The One to whom we shall render absolutely the control of our lives. ‘‘Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”
AN IMPERATIVE AND IMMEDIATE NEED
‘‘We must be saved.’’ Acts 4: 12.
InTRoDuCTION. — Every one here who cannot say, ‘‘I have
been saved’’ should say with that intensity of emphasis that comes from depth of conviction, ‘‘I must be saved.’’ You need a Saviour more than you need anything else. That is your most imperative and most immediate need.
I. Why We Need a Saviour.
1. You need a Saviour because you are a sinner. Rom.
3: 22, 84:
2. You need a Saviour, in the second place, because you
have not only sinned but because you have committed the greatest sin a man can commit. Cf. Matt. 22: 37, 38.
3. You need a Saviour, in the third place, because you
are under a curse. Gal. 3: 10.
4. You need a Saviour, in the fourth place, because you
are in bondage to sin. John 8: 34.
5. You need a Saviour because you cannot save yourself. (a) You cannot save yourself from the guilt of sin. (b) Can we save ourselves from the power of present sin? 6. You need a Saviour because if you are not saved you must spend eternity in hell. Rev. 20: 15.
A KING’S FOLLY AND WHAT IT COST: A TRAGEDY “Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.” Dan. 5: 27. InTRopucTion. — The Bible is the most dramatic book that was ever written, etc. (Picture scene.) I. Belshazzar was Weighed in the Balance of God.
He had been weighed in other balances and not found
wanting. Balance of his own judgment? Balance of
public opinion? Balance of worldly philosophy.
We, too, each one of us, are being weighed in God’s
scales. The great question is What do we weigh there?
II. Belshazzar was found Wanting, Why?
1. V. 22. ‘*Thou hast not humbled thine heart.’’
2. Belshazzar had refused to humble his heart in face of God’s known dealings with others. ‘‘ Though thou knewest all this.”
3. V. 23. Belshazzar had lifted himself up against the Lord of heaven.
4. V. 23, last half. ‘‘The God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified. ’’
{II. The Consequences of Belshazzar’s Folly. What it Cost.
1. His kingdom. V. 26. You too have a kingdom. Jas. 72§:
2. His life. V. 30. Sowithus. Rom. 6: 23.
THE WONDERFUL JESUS “For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful,” ete. Is. 9: 6. InrRoDucTION. — The prophet Isaiah with a mind illumined by the Holy Spirit looked down 710 years and saw the coming of Jesus of Nazareth and uttered the sublime words of our text. In them is wrapped up a world of meaning concerning the Divine Glory, the Matchless Character, and Wonderful Offices of our Lord. In the Bible names have meaning, especially when applied to God the Father, the Son, or the Holy Ghost. The name is a revelation of what one is. Jesus is called wonderful because He is wonderful.
I. Jesus is Wonderful in His Nature.
1. He is a Divine Being. He is Divine in a sense in which no other man is divine. The Bible is full of that great truth.
a. While He is Divine He is at the same time a Real Man. r Tim: 2’s;
II. Jesus is Wonderful in His Character.
His character was absolutely perfect. He was alsolutely without blemish and without spot. He was not only blameless but every possible perfection of character rested upon Him. There is not a perfection of character of which we can think that is not to be found in Him, and found in its fullness. His character is indeed wonderful. He is the wonder of the ages. He stands out absolutely peerless and alone. When any man ventures to put any one else alongside of Jesus Christ he at once loses the confidence of all candid and fair-minded men.
1. Jesus was perfect in holiness.
a. He was also perfect in love.
There are many other perfections in the character of
Jesus; e. g., the perfection of His meekness and
gentleness and humility and patience and courage
and manliness.
III. Jesus is Wonderful in His Work. 1. In the first place He makes a perfect atonement for sin. Is. 53:6. 2. He also saves from sin’s power. Indeed Jesus completely transforms men. 2 Cor. 5:17. 3. Jesus will do more wonderful things still in the future.
ConcLusion. — Jesus is indeed wonderful in the infinite glory of His Divine nature. He is wonderful in the matchless, absolute perfection of His character. He is wonderful in His work, blotting out all sin by His death, delivering from all sin by His resurrection life, transforming us from all remaining imperfection into the full glory of Sons of God by His living again. Jesus is the Wonderful. Now, what will you do with Him? What will you do with this wonderful Jesus? Will you accept Him or reject Him?
THE GREAT QUESTION OF THE DAY
‘*What shall I do with Jesus?’ Matt. 27: 22.
Intropuction. — If I should put it to this audience what is the great question of the day, I presume I would get a great variety of answers. Some would say, etc.
But there is a question of vastly more importance. A question upon the right decision of which immeasurably more depends. The question is this, ‘‘What shall I do with Jesus, which is called Christ?” It is not a new question. Pontius Pilate asked it more than 1800 years ago. Thousands upon thousands have asked it since. Upon a right decision of that question everything that is really worth having for time and for eternity depends. If you do the right thing with Jesus you will get everything that is worth having for time as well as for eternity. If you do the wrong thing with Jesus Christ you will lose everything that is really worth having for time as well as for eternity.
I. What we will Get if we Do the Right Thing with Jesus Christ.
1. If you do the right thing with Jesus Christ you will get forgiveness of sins. Acts 10: 43. What an unspeakable blessing the forgiveness of sins 18.) PS. 433 3.
a. You will get peace of conscience by doing the right thing with Jesus Christ.
3. You will get deliverance from the power of sin by doing the right thing with Jesus Christ.
4. You will get great joy by doing the right thing with Jesus Christ. 1 Pet. 1:8.
5. If you do the right thing with Jesus Christ you get eternal life. John 3:36; 1 John 5: 12. Eternal life. What has the world to put in comparison with that? Do the right thing with Jesus and you get eternal life, do the wrong thing with Jesus and you lose it.
6. There is something even better than eternal life that you get by doing the right thing with Jesus Christ. By doing the right thing with Jesus Christ you become a son of God and heir of God and joint heir with Jesus Christ. John 1:12; Rom. 8:17.
II. What is the Right Thing to Do with Jesus? 1. First of all to receive Him as your Saviour. John 1: 12. 2. Let Him into your heart. Rev. 3: 20. 3. Enthrone Him in your heart. He is the Christ, God’s anointed King. Acts 2: 36. 4. Confess Him before the world as your Lord and Master. Matt. 10: 32, 33; Rom: 10:9, R.-V.
HOW TO BE SAVED “And [he] brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.’’ Acts 16: 30, 31.
Inrropuction. — God has not left us to guess how to be saved. The question has been asked and answered. The way of salvation is here made as plain as day. Notice the positiveness of the statement. All any one then has to do to be saved is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. (Cf. John 3: 16.)
What is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? What is involved in believing on the Lord Jesus?
I, Trust in Him for the Pardon of all my Sins. “Believe on the Lord /esus.’’ (Cf. Acts 13: 38, 39.)
II. The Surrender to Him of the Control of my Entire Life. *‘Believe on the Lord Jesus.”’
III. Confession of Him as my Lord. “‘Lord Jesus.’’ Rom. 10:9, R. V. IV. The Surrender to Him of the Control of my Thoughts. pe lord.” V. Looking to Him for Guidance. VI. Study of His Words in order to Know His Will. John 14: 23. VII. Dependence upon Him for Strength to Do His Will. John 15:5. Conc.usion. — The first step of faith is possible right now, and it is absolutely sure that the moment you take it you will be saved.
THE ONLY FOUNDATION “For other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” 1 Cor. 3: 11.
InTRODUCTION. — Pholosophers and wise men have tried hard to lay some other foundation than Jesus Christ, but have failed utterly. Still they keep at it. They are bound in their foolish wisdom to find some other foundation than God’s and in this way they are dooming themselves and their followers to wretchedness, failure, disappointment and sorrow here, and to shame, degradation and anguish hereafter.
I. Jesus Christ is the only Foundation for Obtaining the Forgiveness of Sin.
II. Jesus Christ is the only Foundation for Peace of Conscience
III. Jesus Christ is the only Foundation of Peace of Heart. By peace of heart as distinguished from peace of conscience, we mean freedom from anxiety and worry.
IV. Jesus Christ is the only Foundation upon which to Build a Successful Attempt to Get the Victory over Sin. John 8: 36.
Y. Jesus Christ is the only Foundation for Comfort in Sorrow. Matt. 11; 28.
VI. Jesus Christ is the only Foundation for Deep, Abiding, Overflowing Joy.
VII. Jesus Christ is the only Foundation for Hope. VIII. The only Foundation for Eternal Life. IX. The only Foundation for Social Regeneration.
WHEN IT PAYS TO BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST
““My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory,
by Christ Jesus.’’ Phil. 4: 19.
InTRopucTION. — If there is anything in this world that pays it is to have a living faith in Jesus Christ. Just listen to that text. There is a guarantee to the believer on Christ to have every need supplied and that guarantee is good.
When it pays to be a believer in Jesus:
I. In Health and Strength.
It pays to be a Christian when one is well and strong. What has a strong man who is not a Christian to do that is worth doing? Without Christ there is nothing worthy for a well and strong man to do.
II. In Sickness.
It pays in many ways:
1. In the first place faith in Jesus Christ promotes restoration to health. It does this in an indirect way. Nothing is more conducive to health than a peaceful, contented, joyful, hopeful frame of mind. It is a certain fact that many people are well to-day who would be sick or dead if it had not been for direct answers to prayers for their healing.
2, It brings joy and blessing in the midst of sickness.
III. In Sorrow.
Happy is the man or woman who in the time of deep sorrow, the time when loved ones are taken away and the
heart is lonely and aching, believes in Jesus Christ. IV. In Adversity. It makes one to rejoice and praise God in the midst of the
loss of all one’s property, and the complete overturning of our plans. Rom. 5:3, 4; Rom. 8: 28.
“V. In Prosperity. No one needs faith in Jesus Christ more than a prosperous man. 1. Prosperity will eternally ruin any man who is not stayed and guided by a living faith in Jesus Christ. 2. In order to really enjoy their prosperity.
VI. In Death. ‘How dark is the hour of death if one has nota living faith on Jesus Christ. How bright is the hour of death if one has, etc. Phil. 1:23; 2 Tim. 4: 6-8. VII. In the Judgment. It will pay to bea believer in Jesus Christ in the Judgment. Rom. 14: 12.
VIII. In Eternity. In eternity to have believed in Jesus Christ will mean eternal life, eternal joy, eternal glory. In eternity not to have believed in Jesus Christ will mean eternal death, eternal darkness, eternal shame, eternal agony, eternal despair. John 3: 36.
ETERNAL LIFE, WHAT IT IS AND HOW TO
GET IT
“The gift of God is eternal life.’’ Rom. 6:23.
I. What Eternal Life is.
Eternal life is real life. 1 Tim. 6:12, 19, R. V. ‘Eternal Life’ is abundant life. John 10:10, R. V. Eternal life is joyous life. 1 Pet. 1: 8.
Eternal life is a life of true knowledge. John 17: 3.
5. Eternal life is endless life. John ro: 28.
II. Who can Have it?
Anybody. Rev. 22:17.
III. How to Get it.
Peirst it is ‘gift:
2. It is ‘tin Jesus Christ.’
3. In order to get eternal life you have simply to take Him
in whom it is. 1 John 5: 12.
Peps
REFUGES OF LIES —
“Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.’’ Is. 28: 17.
InTRopucTIoN. — In the preceding verses of the chapter God has announced to Israel that there is a day of judgment coming for them. But the rulers of Israel regarded this warning with scorn. They spoke just as stout-hearted fools to-day talk. The Assyrian army came and destroyed the stout-hearted princes of Israel. Now God has declared there is to be another judgment, another hail, another day of dealing with ungodly and Christ-rejecting men. What these princes of Israel did: Strengthened their proud and wicked hearts and sought comfort in refuges of lies, in false hopes. Many are doing so to-day.
I. How to Tell a Refuge of Lies.
Five common sense tests by which you can tell a true
refuge, one that will stand fast in the Day of Judgment
from a false one, a Refuge of Lies, one that the tempest of hail shall sweep away and leave you exposed to the pitiless fury of the storm of eternal judgment.
1. The first test is this: Does the refuge in which you are trusting satisfy the highest demands of your own conscience. If not it will of course not satisfy God. 1 John 3: 20.
2. Is the refuge in which you are trusting delivering you from the power of sin? The refuge that cannot save us from the power of sin here cannot save us from the consequences of sin hereafter.
3. Will the refuge in which you are trusting stand the test of the dying hour?
4. Will the refuge in which you are trusting stand the test of the all-seeing eye of God in the judgment?
§. Will it stand the test of the Scripture? A refuge that will not stand the test of Scripture is utterly unreliable. The Bible is the book that the ages have tried and tested. Through these ages one philosopher after another has set up his opinions against the Bible.
But the philosophers each have had their day and gone down, but the Bible has withstood the wreck of the centuries.
II. Refuges Tested and Proven Refuges of Lies.
1, Universalism. Apply tests.
2. Infidelity. Apply tests.
. Spiritualism. Apply tests.
. Refusal to consider.
- Morality.
. Religious ceremonies.
7. Orthodoxy of belief.
Conc.Lusion. — Is there a sure refuge? Yes. Is. 32:2.
Jesus Christ. Apply tests.
Nu bh WwW
HARDENED “But exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.’? Heb. 3: 13.
IntropuctTion. — There is not a more solemn warning in the Bible than this. There is not a more timely warning in the Bible than this. All around us we see men and women who are being “‘hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” Three times in this one chapter God pleads with men, ‘‘ Harden not your hearts.” I. Indications that one is Hardened.
1. The truth does not move us as it once did.
2. Jest about sacred things or listen approvingly to others when they jest about them.
3. Not deeply moved by thoughts of God’s love.
II. Results of being Hardened.
1. The first evil that results from a hardened heart is a corrupt life. The hardening of the heart against the truth and against Christ leads inevitably to sin.
2. Spiritual blindness,
3. Loss of joy.
4. Utter despair.
5. Eternal death. Rom. 2:5. There is no hope in the life that now is, there is no hope in the life that is to come for the man whose heart is finally hardened against Christ.
THE JUDGMENT DAY.
‘‘He hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.’’ Acts
T7ioke INTRODUCTION. — Two events in the future are absolutely
certain, the coming of Christ for His people, the coming of a
judgment day for the world.
Note five things about this judgment day:
I. The Certainty of it. The resurrection of Christ from the dead is a certain, incontrovertible fact, and it is a guarantee that there is a day of judgment coming. When Jesus was here upon earth He said that in coming days He would judge the world. (John 5:22, 23.) Men scoffed at this claim. They put Him to death for making it, and the other claim involved in it, that He was the Son of God. But God set His seal to the claim by raising Him from the dead. The resurrection of Christ from the dead makes it absolutely certain that there is a Judgment Day coming.
II. The Universality of it.
‘*He will judge the world.’’
III. The Basis of it, or About What the Judgment will be. 1. It will be about the deeds done in the body. 2 Cor.
STO tines
2. The secret things will be judged. Rom. 2: 16.
3. The great basis of that judgment will be what men
have done with Christ. John 3:18, 19.
IV. Who will Sit as Judge. That same Jesus whom you are rejecting to-day will be the judge in that day.
V. The Issues.
They will be eternal.
ETERNITY
“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh’ for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Cor. 4:17, 18.
InrrRopucTion. — The apostle Paul had to endure some things that to most men would seem very hard to bear, and some of these afflictions continued through years. But in speaking of these afflictions in our text Paul speaks of ‘‘our light affliction’? and our affliction ‘which is Jor the moment.”’ Is thirty years but ‘‘a moment’’?) Yes, when compared with eternity. And is the loss of friends, the loss of ease, the loss of admiration and applause of man, the loss of home and native land, the loss of all men ordinarily hold dear, and imprisonment and shipwreck and scourging and wandering and hunger and stoning, is all this “light affliction’? Yes, when compared with the joy and honor and glory which is to be revealed to us. And when all the wealth, and pleasures and honors, that one can possibly get in this world are put in comparison with the eternal agony and ruin and despair and shame that it costs to live for the world, they too are nothing.
I. There is an Eternity and we Must Go there. II. When and How we shall spend Eternity is Settled in the Life that now is. III. How to Secure a Blessed and Glorious Eternity. 1. Believe on Jesus Christ. John 3: 16. 2. We must serve Jesus Christ. 3. The sufferings we endure, the sacrifices we make for Christ, make eternity richer. Matt. 5:11, 12; Rom. SerSsn2 Time at 72: 4. We must use our money for Christ. ConcLusion. — The greatest practical question that confronts you and me to-night is, where shall we spend eternity, and how shall we spend eternity?
HELL
“If thy right eye causeth thee to stumble pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.” Matt. 5: 29, R.V.
InTRODUCTION. — Text is from the Sermon on the Mount.
Many persons who say they do not believe the whole Bible but they do believe the Sermon on the Mount.
I have also taken my text from the Revised Version for some so-called liberal preachers are proclaiming to-day that the R. V. has done away with hell. There seems to be a good deal of it left in our text. I. The Certainty of Hell.
Hell is a certainty.
1. Hell is certain because God’s Word declares it. Matt.
26:41; 2 Thess..1: 7, 9; 2 Pet. 2: 4,9; Jude ra: 15. Listen. Jesus spoke after He Himself had gone down into the grave and risen again and ascended to the right hand of God. He certainly knew now what He was talking about when He spoke of the future life. Res 21.2’8:
2. Experience, observation, common sense also point to
the existence of hell.
IJ. The Character of Hell.
I.
Oyen
Hell is a place of physical anguish. This is plain from
the Bible description of the future destiny of the impenitent. ‘‘Death’’ and ‘‘Destruction’’ are the terms most frequently used of the future punishment of sin. Both of these terms are defined in the Bibie.. Rev. 17:8; cf. Rev. 20: 10; Rev. 21: 8.
In the next world we are not disembodied spirits. We have bodies. Not these same bodies, it is true, but bodies. The bodies of the damned will be the fit partner of the degraded spirits that inhabit them and partakers in all their shame and agony.
Hell is a place of remorse of conscience. Hell is a place of memory and remorse, remorse without a moment’s rest, endless remorse.
Hell is a place of unsatisfied and consuming desires. Hell is a place where passion and desires exist in their highest potency, but where there is absolutely no gratification for them.
Hell is a place of ever-increasing moral degradation. It is a ‘bottomless pit.”’
Hell is a place of shame.
Hell is a place of vile associations. Rev. 21: 8.
Finally, hell is a place without hope.
A CHEERING PROMISE ABOUT HELL
“All liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire
and brimstone.’’ Rev. 21: 8.
InTRODUCTION. — The subject of hell is one of the most awful subjects that any man can contemplate. There is but one subject that is more awful and that is sin. Sin is worse than hell. The suffering and misery that sin causes are not so awful as the sin which causes them. Hell with its vast ages of agony and shame isa frightful subject to contemplate, but even hell has its pleasant side. It is found in the text.
‘It is a comforting thought that there will not be one liar in heaven. There will be men in heaven who have been liars and have repented, but there will not be one man or woman there who persisted in their lying. Iam sorry that there are any liars in the world, but there are, and as long as there are I am comforted to think that there is a hell for them to go to. A liar is a son of Satan, for the devil is a liar and the father of it. A liaris the most hopeless case on earth. He can only be saved by faith, and it is hard for a liar to have faith in God. He is such a liar himself that it is hard for him to put confidence in any one else. Men, you, that is the reason why so many liars are infidels. The case of the liar is very dark indeed, and we need not wonder that it is written that “‘all liars,’’ etc.
I. Classes of Liars.
1. The slanderous liar, the liar who slanders his fellow men.
2. The atheistic liar. The slanderous liar slanders man, the atheistic liar slanders God.
3. The infidel liar. The slanderous liar slanders his fellow man, the atheistical liar slanders God, the infidel liar slanders the Bible, God’s Word, infinitely the best book the world ever had; and in slandering God’s Word he slanders the God who is the author of it.
4. The fourth class of liars are the Unitarian liars. The slanderous liar slanders his fellow man, the atheistical liar slanders God, the infidel liar slanders the Word of God and the God who is the author of it, and the
Unitarian liar slanders the Son of God. The apostle John tells us that the Unitarian liar is the liar of liars. 1 John 2: 22.
5. The universalist liars, they who say that there is no hell and no future punishment for sin. Any man who says this is a great enemy of his fellow man. He holds out false hopes to his fellow man, and lures him on to eternal ruin.
6. The sixth class of liars are those who make false excuses for not coming to Christ.
II. How to Escape Hell. There is but one way in which you can escape hell. That is by the personal acceptance of Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord and the open confession of Him before the world. Acts 4:12; John 3:36; Matt. 10: 32, 33; 2 Thess. I: 7-9.
“GOD’S BLOCKADE OF THE ROAD TO HELL”
“The Lord is... not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”’ 2 Pet. 3:9.
InrrRopucTion. — If any man perish it is not God’s fault. God has done and is doing everything in His power to bring men to repentance. If men will not repent they must perish. Sin and destruction must ever go hand in hand. Men must choose between sin and life. They cannot have both.
Any scheme of salvation that proposes to save a man while he continues in his sin is an absurdity on its very face. God will not and cannot save a man unless he repents. But God is doing all in His power to bring men to repentance. God has blockaded the road to hell, and if any man goes there it is of his own choice in spite of God’s blockade. How has God blockaded the road to hell?
[. The Bible.
The first great obstruction that God has put in the road to hell is the Bible. The Bible with its warnings and its invitations and its promises is constantly calling every - one of us toa holy life. The Bible is a constant protest against our sins and our unbelief and our impenitence.
II. Mother’s Instructions. i A second obstacle that God has put in the road that leads to ruin is a mother’s instructions. III. Mother’s Prayers. A third obstacle that God has put in the road to hell isa mother’s prayers. IV. Sunday School Teacher’s Instructions. V. The Sermons that We Hear. VI. Providential Occurzences. Another obstruction that God places in the road to hell are various providential occurrences, VII. The Holy Spirit. One of the mightiest obstacles that God places in the road to hell is the striving of the Holy Spirit. VIII. The Cross of Christ.
But the greatest obstacle of all that God has placed in the road to hell, the one without which all others would count for naught, is the cross of Christ.
CHAPTER VI
TOPICAL SERMONS IN OUTLINE
THE BIBLE: WHEREIN IT DIFFERS FROM ALL
OTHER BOOKS
IntRopucTION. — The Bible stands absolutely alone. It is
an entirely unique book. It is not a book, it is the book. Wherein the Bible differs from all other books:
I. In its Depth.
The Bible is the eferomanie and inexhaustible book. It is unfathomable not because of the obscurity of its style, but because of the profundity of its teaching. The style is so simple and clear that a child can understand it, but its truth is so profound that:we explore it from childhood to old age, and can never say that we have reached the bottom.
1. There are whole volumes of meaning ina single and apparently simple verse.
2. The Bible is always ahead of man. What other book ought to command the attention, the time and the study that this book does which is deeper than all other books, ahead of all other books and ahead of every age?
II. In the Absolute Accuracy of its Statements.
III.
The Bible is the only book that always says all it means to say, and never says any more than it means to say.
In its Power.
There is perhaps no place in which the supremacy and solitariness of the Bible shines out as in its power.
In what direction does the Bible show a power that no other books possess?
1. Saving power.
(a) The Bible has unique saving power in individual lives.
(b) It has saving power in national life.
2. The Bible has a comforting power no other book possesses.
3. The Bible has a joy-giving power no other book possesses.
4. The Bible has a wisdom-giving power that no other book possesses. Ps. 119: 130.
5. The Bible has a courage-giving power no other book possesses. No other book has made so many and such peerless heroes.
6. The Bible has a power to inspire activity that no other book possesses.
IV. In its Universal Adaptability.
Other books fit certain classes, or certain types, or certain
races of men, but the Bible fits man universally.
1. It fits all nations.
2. It fits all ages.
3. The Bible fits all classes.
4. The Bible fits all experiences. It is the book for the hour of gladness, and the book for the hour of sadness, the book for the day of victory and the book for the day of defeat. The book for the day of clearest faith, and the book for the day of darkest doubt.
V. In its History.
1. The Bible has been hated as no other book.
2. Loved as no other book.
3. Studied as no other book.
4. It has been victorious as no other book.
VI. In its Authorship. Finally, the Bible differs from every other book in its authorship. Other books are men’s books, this is God’s book.
IS THE BIBLE IN DANGER?
IntRopucTION. — Many consider that the Bible is in grave danger. Many think so because they are glad to think so; it gives their conscience some little consolation in a life of sin. Others fear so with great reluctance. They love the Bible, would be glad to believe, they are afraid that the old book must go. So let us honestly face the question, ‘‘Is the Bible in danger?’’
We will not deny that the Bible has enemies and most gifted ones. Six reasons why the Bible is not in danger:
I. Because the Bible has already Survived the Attacks of 1,800 Years.
II. The Bible is not in Danger because it Meets and Satisfies the
Deepest Needs of Man.
1. First of all the need of pardon and peace.
2. The need of man is deliverance from sin’s ae
3. The need of comfort in sorrow.
4. Need of hope in the face of death.
III. The Bible is not in Danger because there is Nothing Else to Take the Place of the Bible. The Bible contains all the truth of moral and ‘spiritual subjects that other books contain, it contains more than all other books put together, and it contains all this in portable compass.
IV. The Bible is not in Danger because it has a Hold that Cannot
be Shaken on the Confidence and Affection of the Wisest and Best Men and Women. The Bible has the distrust and hatred of some, but it has the confidence and affection of the wisest and ‘especially the best and holiest of men and women. The men who know the Bible best are the men who trust it most and love it best. The Bible is distrusted and hated by those whose influence dies with them, the Bible is loved and trusted by those whose influence lives after them.
V. The Bible is not in Danger because it is the Word of God. Many things prove that this book is the Word of God. Its fulfilled prophecies, its unity, its Divine Power, its inexhaustible depth, the fact that as we grow in knowledge and holiness — grow Godward — we grow toward the Bible.
VI. The Bible is not in Danger because any Honest and Earnest Seeker after Truth can find out for Himself that the Bible is God’s Word.
Conc.usion. — The Bible is in no danger. But while the Bible itself is in no danger those who vent their spleen upon it are in danger. It is no small sin to ridicule the Word of all-holy and all-mighty God. There are others who are in danger. Those who listen to the fascinating eloquence of an Ingersoll and allow it to lull them to repose in a life of sin.
INFIDELITY: ITS CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES
AND CURE
I. Causes.
1. The misrepresentation of Christianity by its professed disciples. Two kinds of misrepresentation: (a) In doctrine.
(b) In life.
2. Ignorance. Ignorance of what the Bible contains and teaches. Ignorance of history.
3. Conceit. Men become infidels because they find things in the Bible they cannot understand, because there are apparent contradictions which they cannot reconcile. To think that our finite minds could take in ina day or a month all the truth revealed by an infinite mind; to think that because I can’t take a statement in it can’t be true; to think because I can’t find a solution to a difficulty, none can be found; is to think that my mind is infinite, that I know all things, is to think I am God.
4. Sin. This is the commonest and most fundamental cause of infidelity. In two ways:
(a) Men sin and betake themselves to infidelity to find comfort in their sins.
(b) Sin blinds their eyes to the truth of the Bible and makes it appear foolishness.
II. Consequences. 1. Sin. Infidelity breeds sin; there is no doubt of that
It is caused by sin and in turn begets a progeny like
its ancestry.
Anarchy. Anarchists are always infidels.
Wretchedness and despair.
Suicide.
Hopeless graves.
. Eternal ruin.
III. The Cure.
i. Christ-like living on the part of professed Christians.
2. A surrendered will on the part of the infidel.
3. The study of the Word of God.
AA EYP
WHY I BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST
InTRODUCTION. — There is nothing more important for a man for the life that now is and for the life that is to come, than a faith in Jesus Christ that is intelligent, clear and firm.
I. I Believe in Jesus Christ first of all because of the remarkable Fulfillment of His Prophecies. Jesus Christ was a prophet. He made some astounding predictions regarding the future. Predictions that seemed incredible and in some cases absurd, but which history has fulfilled to the letter. Take for example His prediction of a world-wide conquest by His disciples. (In Matt. 28: 18-20.); Matt. 24:1, 2, 5, 7, 10, 16, 26, 28; Luke 19: 41-443 21: 20-24.
II. I believe in Jesus Christ, in the second place, because of His Fulfilled Promises.
Jesus Christ was not only a prophet but a promiser. He made promises of a most extraordinary character, but promises the truth of which any man could test for himself, and all who have tested the promises have found them true. E. g., Matt. 11: 28; Acts 1:8; John 7:17.
III. I believe in Jesus Christ, in the third place, because of the Wholesome Character of His Laws.
IV. I believe in Christ again because of the Way He Fits into and Fulfills all 0. T. Types and Prophecies.
V. I believe in Jesus Christ because of the Fact of His Resurrection.
VI. I believe in Jesus Christ because of the Uniqueness of His Claims and the Way in which He Substantiates Them.
VII. I believe in Jesus Christ because of His Demonstrated Power to Save. I believe that Jesus can save because He does save. I believe that Jesus can save because I have seen Him do it.
SOME ABSOLUTE CERTAINTIES
INTRODUCTION. — We live at a time when the religions and philosophies of all ages and all lands are being brought together for comparison. What an inextricable tangle there seems to be — Christianity, Mohammedanism, Buddhism and Zoroasterianism; all the various forms of materialistic and spiritualistic philosophy. Within Christianity itself what a conflict of rival theologies! Where is truth to be found? What is truth? Itisa great relief and joy to find some certainties among this endless maze of uncertainties, to find something to stand upon and be able to say here at least I have solid rock underneath my feet.
A few of the fundamental truths about which there can be no honest question:
I. The first absolute certainty is that there is an absolute difference between right and wrong.
II. The second certainty is that a man ought to make an honest and diligent search for the truth and to follow every possible clue that promises to lead to it.
1. Here prayer comes in. It is a possible clue.
2. The Bible is at least another possible clue. Many very credible witnesses claim they have come to this book, not all prejudiced in its favor but honestly seeking truth, and have in this book found what they sought. These two clues should be followed together.
III. The third certainty is; a man ought to obey so much of the truth as he finds and as fast as he finds it. IV. The fourth certainty is that every man is a sinner and needs a Saviour,
V. The fifth absolute certainty is that Jesus does save those who put their trust in Him.
VI. The sixth absolute certainty is that there is no other Saviour from the guilt and power of sin but Jesus Christ.
VII. The seventh absolute certainty is that the life of the one who accepts Jesus Christ as Saviour and who surrenders to Him as Lord, believes the promises and obeys the precepts of the Bible, is the noblest, fairest, happiest and in every way the most satisfactory life.
WHY I BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHRIST IS THE
SON OF GOD
InTRODUCTION. — There is no subject more important than that of the Divinity of Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ is not Divine, then Christians are idolaters. If Jesus Christ is Divine then all who do not acknowledge Him as such and accept Him as their Divine Saviour and Lord are guilty of the awful sin of rejecting the Son of God and denying Him the honor due to His name.
I. I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God because of His own Claim to be the Son of God, and the Way in which He Substantiates that Claim.
Christ’s claim to be divine is substantiated:
1. First, by His character.
2. His claim to be divine is substantiated by the miracles which He performed.
3. Christ’s claim to be divine is substantiated, in the third place, by His influence on the history of the world.
4. Christs claim is substantiated, in the fourth place, by His resurrection from the dead.
II. Because of the other Teachings of the Bible besides His own.
III. Because of the Divine Power He Possesses To-day.
It is not necessary to go back to the miracles of Christ when upon earth to prove this. He has divine power, He exercises this power to-day and any one can test it.
1. He has power to forgive sins.
2, He has power to-day to set Satan’s victims free.
IV. I believe Jesus Christ is Divine because of the Character of those who Accept Him as Divine.
V. I believe in the Divinity of Jesus Christ because of the Result of Accepting His Divinity. The religion that accepts God the Father but rejects Jesus Christ His Son has no such deep and lasting moral power as the religion that accepts Jesus Christ as divine. Unitarianism does not save the fallen. Unitarianism does not beget a missionary spirit. Faith in Jesus as divine makes missionaries and martyrs, it produces men of prayer and faith. It produces consecrated living. The denial of the divinity of Christ tends to prayerlessness, religious carelessness, unbelief, worldliness, selfishness and easy-going living.
UNTO PRAYER
InTRopucTion. — The great need of our day in our church life is more prayer. Passages that put this call in an especially impressive and instructive way: 1 Pet. 4:7, R. V. The closing words, ‘‘de sober unto prayer.’’ ‘The word translated ““be sober’’ means to be ‘‘calm and collected in spirit.’’ To be clear-headed. The thought is that prayer isa matter of greatest importance as the days go fast flying toward the end, and that it demands a man’s best thought, and that a man needs. a, clear head before all: else, in order that he may approach’the great God acceptably in prayer. Prayer demands our best moments and our best thought.
I. 1 Cor. 7:5, R. V. “That ye may Give Yourselves unto Prayer.’’ Here Paul says that there are certain duties incumbent upon married people that they may by mutual consent give up for a season that they may give themselves to prayer. That is, prayer is a matter of such vast importance, and for its proper prosecution demands such concentration of thought and disentanglement from other concerns, that matters of very great weight may properly be laid aside to attend ‘to this weightier matter of prayer. The words translated ‘‘that ye may give yourselves unto ptayer’’ mean literally ‘‘that ye may have leisure unto prayer.” That is, prayer cannot be properly prosecuted by a preoccupied mind. It demands leisure. It demands the putting of all other things aside and attending absolutely and wholly to this.
II. The third passage is Col. 4:2,R. V. “Continuing steadfastly in prayer, watching therein with supplication.”’
The words translated ‘‘Continue steadfastly in prayer’’ mean give constant attention to prayer, make a business of prayer. It is the same word used in Acts 6: 4, where the apostles wanted some one to be appointed to look after the poor in order that they might give themselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the Word; and in Acts 10: 7, where it is said of certain soldiers that they wazted on Cornelius contznually; and in Rom. 13:6, where it is said of officials that ‘‘they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.’’ It evidently means to make a business of a thing. We should make a business of prayer. It is Jesus Christ’s business. That is what He lives for. Heb. 2:25. When the Church of Christ does make prayer its business our eyes shall behold such great things in conversions and progress in life at home and missionary conquests abroad as we have never dreamed of. Our verse says something else about prayer than making it a business. ‘‘Continue steadfastly in prayer, watching therein.’’ It must be wide awake business.
Rom. 15:30. “That ye strive together.”
We should strive in prayer. The word translated ‘strive’? means to ‘“‘contend’’ or ‘“‘fight’’ or ‘‘struggle’’ against opposition. To put forth intense and determined effort. The noun from which it is derived is translated “‘conflict’’ or ‘‘fight,’’ as for example in 2 Tim. 4:7. God demands the same earnestness in prayer that He does in work. We get the best things in work only by hard working, and we get the best things in prayer by hard praying. There are obstacles to be overcome by prayer, real obstacles, there are enemies to be conquered by prayer, live enemies, strong enemies, and the prayers that win take a vast outlay of soul energy.
-ConcLusion. — Four practical suggestions.
1. Set apart time from everything else for praying. A certain portion of every day and frequent special seasons.
2. Prepare for prayer.
(a) Examine your heart and life to see if you are in praying trim, and if not, get into it.
(b) Think carefully over the things that you are to pray for. Find the best, the most needy, most urgent causes.
3. When you undertake to pray summon all your spirit and energy and pray it through.
4. Look to the Holy Spirit to guide every step of the way, *“praying in the Holy Spirit.’’
THREE FIRES
I. The Fire of the Holy Ghost.
Matt. 3:11; Acts 2: 2-4.
1. First of all fire reveals. 1 Cor. 3:13. What does it mean to be baptized with fire? The answer to this is found in considering what fire does.
2. Fire refines and purifies. Is. 44; Zech. 1:3, 9; Mal. 33.123.
3. Fireconsumes. Itrefines by consuming. Ez. 24: 9-11. There is much in all of us that needs to be consumed, pride, vanity, love of money, love of pleasures, fear of man.
4. Fire illuminates. When one is baptized with fire, truth we did not see at all before becomes as clear as day, the Bible becomes a new book, glory shines from every page.
5. Fire, also, warms, it makes to glow.
6. Fire imparts energy. All forms of energy can be transformed into heat and by heat we can generate the different forms of force and motion.
7. Fire spreads.
II. The Fire that Tries Our Works.
1 Cor. 3:13-15. Not a judgment regarding salvation. The persons whose works are here burned up are saved, It is a judgment regarding the works we do as Christians and the reward we shall receive for them. All the works we do for Christ, or professedly for Him, are to be tested. They are to be put to the severe test, the fire test. All that will not stand the fire test will be burned up.
III. The Fire of Eternal Doom.
2 Thess. 1:7-9. Every one of shall know fire from God. Some of us, I hope, will know the fire of the Holy Ghost. Many of us, I know, will know the fire that tries and consumes our work which is not of the right sort in God’s sight. Some shall know the fire of eternal doom. There is a fire of eternaldoom. For whom is it?
1. To them that know not God.
2. To them that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus.
ConcLusion. — There are these three fires, one of which we all must know. Which shall it be?
THE BAPTISM WITH FIRE
(Matt. 3: 11.)
I. What Is the Baptism with Fire?
The interpretation that makes the fire of future judgment
untenable.
1. In that case it should read ‘‘or fire.”
2. The way coupled with Holy Ghost, not two ‘‘withs,’’ asin A. V. and R. V.
3. Literal translation. ‘‘With Holy wind and fire.’’
4. Fulfilled at Pentecost. Acts 2: 2-4.
What is it to be baptized with fire? The answer found
in considering what fire is said to do in Scripture and
what came to the disciples at Pentecost.
1. 1 Cor. 3:13. Refines.
2. Is. 4:4; Zech. 13:9; Mal. 3:1-3. Refines and purifies. The apostles after Pentecost compared with before.
. Ez. 24:9-11. Consumes. John 5: 35.
. [iluminates. Jas. 16:13; 1 Cor. 2: 14.
Fire warms, it makes to glow.
Fire imparts energy, generates power and motion.
. Fire spreads.
The great need of ministers and Christian work, of individual Christians and the Church is a baptism with fire.
AAR
~
II. How Received.
ITT.
How did the apostles receive it?
They recognized their need.
They believed it was for them.
They really desired it.
They continued steadfastly in prayer.
They were wholly surrendered to God’s will.
. They expected it.
One gets the baptism with fire in pretty much the same way as one gets water baptism. You wish to be baptized with water you go to one qualified to baptize with water, tell him what you want and put yourself in his hands for him to baptize you, you being willing to take upon yourself all the consequences of that baptism. Do just the same in this. There is but One qualified to baptize with fire. Jesus Christ, the risen Christ, is the sole and only baptizer with the Holy Ghost.
An & WN
Stirring up the Fire.
2 Tim. 1: 6.
1. This clearly implies that after one has received the baptism with fire it may burn low and must be stirred into a flame. Experience abundantly proves this.
2. How kindle into a flame?
(a) Study of the Word. Eph. 5:18, 19; comp. Col.
3:16. Just as soon as any one neglects his Bible
study the Holy fire burns low. Jer. 23: 29.
(b) Prayer. Acts 4: 31.
(c) Work. 1 Tim. 4: 13, 14.
Conc.iusion. — Have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire? Will you be to-day? Have you been and is the fire burning low? Will you kindle it into a flame?
POWER: ITS SOURCE AND HOW TO OBTAIN IT
Text. ‘God has spoken once... power belongeth unto God.”’
Ps. 62: 11.
InTRODUCTION. — The great need in Christian work is power. The father and mother in the home. The Sunday- school teacher. The personal worker. We preachers of the Gospel. We must have power. We can have power. How can we get it?
I. The Source of Power.
Power belongeth unto God. All real power is from Him. We get power by getting in contact with Him, in union with Him. How often you see a man whom you supposed to be a comparative ignoramus doing a mighty work for God. Why is it? Somehow he has gotten into contact with God. He has got hold of God’s power. If you have not the power nobody is to blame but yourself. God is not to blame for He longs to give; the devil is not to blame, for he can’t hinder. You are to blame.
II. How Power Is to be Obtained.
What are the conditions upon which God bestows upon us
the power that belongs to Him?
1. Is. 59:1, 2. We must put away sin.
2. Judges 16: 15-17; cf. Num. 6:1, 2,5. We must be separated and stay separated unto God.
3. 1 Pet. 5:5, 6. We must get down low before God.
When we give up our own wisdom we get God’s.
When we give up our own power then and only then
we get the power of God. Is. 4o: 29.
4. Heb. 11: 32-34. We must have faith. How to get
faith, Rom. 10:17.
5. Luke 11: 5-10. If we are to get God’s power we must ask for it. The place of prayer is the place where power is obtained. Is. 40: 31; Jas. 4:2.
6. Acts 1:8; 4:31, 33. If we are to have power we must have the Holy Ghost. Luke 11:13; Acts 2: 39.
THE CHRISTIAN WORKER AND THE HOLY
SPIRIT
InTRODUCTION. — There are three passages in the Bible regarding the Holy Spirit that every one who wishes to be used of God in winning souls should ponder very deeply.
I. Luke 24: 49.
1. What ts this enduement of power?
(a) A definite experience.
(b) Separate and distinct from regeneration.
(c) A clothing of the believer in Christ with the
power of God.
2. How received. Can be variously stated.
(a) Must believe there is such an enduement. Acts
19: 1-6,
(b) Must desire it. Is. 44: 3.
(c) Put away hindrances. The great hindrances, sin and self-sufficiency.
(d) Absolute surrender. Acts 5: 32.
(e) Trayer. Luke 11:13; Acts 4: 31.
(f) Faith-claim. Mark 11:24, R. V.
II. 1 Thess. 5:19. These words are addressed to believers. The Holy Spirit is here set forth asa fire. Significance: There is danger that this fire be quenched. Not enough to receive this fire. Must see to it that it is not quenched.
1. How the Holy Spirit is quenched.
(a) Through not yielding to the Spirit’s suggestions.
See context.
(b) Through incoming of sin.
(c) Through going back on our consecration,
(d) Through self-indulgence.
(e) Through pride. If one has quenched the Spirit what shall he do? Go alone with God and find the cause. Then have done with it. Can power be renewed? Yes.
III. 2 Tim. 1:6. Here again the Holy Spirit is compared to fire. The verse tells us it is not enough not to quench the fire. We must feed the fire and stir it into a flame. Here is where many fail.
1. How?
(a) The study of the Word. Eph. 5: 18, 19; compare
Col. 3: 16.
(b) Prayer. Acts 4: 31.
(c) Work. The exercise of the gift increases the
power of the gift. 1 Tim. 4:14 (see context,
Vsmr3):
THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE WORD
IntTRoDucTION. — The one who would be an efficient worker for Christ must know the power of two things. The power of the Spirit of God and the power of the Word of God. These two are most intimately related to each other.
Io Pet. 21321 Peta 323 Heb. 3: 7 eyo 4s 26 ee om 2:12, 13. The Holy Spirit is the author of the Word.
II. Luke’1:67 (and which follows Scripture), 2: 25, compare 2:32; Acts 2:4, 14-17, etc. (25-28); 6:5, compare ch. 7, (Whenever a man was filled with the Holy Spirit he was full of Scripture.) The Holy Spirit leads men to the Word.
III. 1 Cor. 2:14. The Holy Spirit is the interpreter of the Word.
IV. Acts 4:31, 34; 1 Cor. 2: 1-5. The Holy Spirit enables the preacher to communicate with power to others the truth he himself has been taught.
V. The Word is the instrument the Holy Spirit uses in all His blessed work.
John 15: 26, compare 5: 39.
John 16: 8, compare Acts 2: 37.
John 3:5, compare 1 Pet. 1: 23; John 1: 18,
1 Pet. 1: 2, compare John 17: 17.
n. Cor, 123’9,:f.)cl,,. Roms’ 102 592
. Rom. 8: 16, compare x John 5: 13.
Gal. 5: 22, compare Jer. 15:16; John 15: 11,
Rom. 15:13, compare v. 4 (hope).
Acts 9: 31, compare Rom. 15: 4 (comfort),
CBW ANE py x
The Spirit of God works through the Word. If we wish the Spirit to do His work in our hearts we must study the Word. If we wish Him to do His work in hearts of others we must give them the Word. Eph. 6:17. But the Word alone will not doit. It is the Word and the Spirit. We must look to the Spirit to make His Word effectual. 2 Cor. 3:6.
SOME REASONS WHY EVERY SENSIBLE MAN
SHOULD BE A CHRISTIAN
I. Every sensible man should be a Christian because the teachings of Jesus Christ are true and right and ought therefore to be obeyed.
A learned man is a man who knows a great deal, a sensible man is a man who acts upon what he knows, A man may have much learning and very little sense. The man who knows and believes the teachings of Christ to be true and doesn’t act upon them has the least sense of all.
II. Every sensible person should be a Christian because the acceptance of Christ brings salvation. Two things are perfectly clear to every candid person who considers the facts in the case. 1st. That men need salvation. 2d. That Christ does save those who accept Him. The first of these certainties every man knows from experience. The second of these certainties, that Jesus Christ does save those who put their trust in Him, any one can know not only from the sure Word of God that asserts, Rom. 1: 16, but from observation as well. Itisa simple incontrovertible fact that Jesus Christ has saved men.
III. Every sensible man should be a Christian because Christ brings a deeper, purer, more lasting joy to those who accept Him than can be found in any other way.
1 Pet. 1:8. Ask any one who has ever been a real Christian if he finds in Christ a deeper, purer, more lasting joy than he ever found elsewhere and he will tell you yes, far deeper, immeasurably deeper,
IV. Every sensible man should be a Christian because real faith in Christ prepares one for every emergency of life that can possibly arise.
Phil, 4: 11, 12; Heb. 11:6; Rom. 8: 28.
IMPORTANCE OF BIBLE STUDY
InTRODUCTION. — There is nothing more important for the Christian than Bible study. There is nothing as important except prayer, holy living and work. And the one who rightly studies his Bible will pray powerfully, live holy, and work earnestly and efficiently. Bible study is also important for the one who is not a Christian.
I. Bible Study is Important as a Means of Intellectual Development.
No other study offers the material for such an all-round
development of the mental powers as the study of the
Bible.
1. The Bible is the profoundest book that was ever written.
2. The Bible gives a wider scope for the legitimate use of the imagination and fancy than any other book, or all other books. It goes back into the eternal past, it looks forward into the eternal future. The greatest masters of literature have allowed their fancy to drink in its highest inspiration at the Bible fountain.
3. The Bible is the world’s great masterpiece of style. (a) It is the world’s marvel of condensed thought.
Volumes are packed into a single verse.
(b) It is the peerless model of simple, chaste, strong, Anglo-Saxon.
(c) It is absolutely unrivaled in its power of terse and incisive statement.
(d) It has a power that no other book possesses of
saying things in a way that so penetrates the
mind and fastens itself in the memory that they
cannot be forgotten.
Any man or woman who desires to write well or
speak well should study the Bible above all other
books.
4. Bible study affords such opportunity as is found nowhere else for the cultivation of the powers of observation, analysis, synthesis, inference, memory and recollection.
II. Bible Study is of the Highest Importance for the Promotion of Growth in Christian Character. 1 Pet. 2:2.
III. Bible Study is Important for the Production and Deveiopment
of Faith.
Rom. 10: 17.
1. Faith as opposed to unbelief.
2. Faith that prevails in prayer.
3. Saving faith.
4. Faith that expects and receives great things from God in work.
IV. Bible Study is Important as a Safeguard against Sin.
PSs 19 <i. t.
V. Bible Study is Important as Filling the Heart with Joy. Jer. 15: 16.
VI. Bible Study is Important as a Safeguard against Error. Acts 20: 29, 30, 32; 2 Tim. 3: 13-15, R. V.
VII. Bible Study is Important to Make one Wise.
Ps. 119: 130.
VIII. Bible Study is Important as an Equipment for Christian Service. The Bible is the one Instrument God Honors in Christian Work.
Bet im33 16, (17. ConcLusion. — You will miss every richest blessing in life if you neglect your Bible.
HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE
I. Study the BIBLE.
1. Not about the Bible, but the Bzble ztsel/f. Satan kept men for years from any Bible study, now there is an interest, etc., he keeps them from real Bible study. Questions of authorship, date, etc., are quite important, but studying these things is not studying the Bible. z. Not helps and commentaries on the Bible, but the Bzd/e. 3. Not devotional books. They are good in their place, but learn to go right to the fountain for yourself. The Bible itself the richest gold mine in the world.
II. STUDY the Bible.
III.
Not merely carry it. Not merely praise it. Not merely glance over it. Not merely read. Study means close mental application. The Bible is profitable only by the truth in it and that you must digest. Take its books, its chapters, its verses, its individual words and study them. Ponder them. Look closely at them. Turn them over andover. Weigh them. Psicrsas J OShst! 6. One great hindrance to real study is having so many chapters you must read in a day. Leads to skimming, thoughtless reading. Have a definite amount of time for study, but not a definite number of chapters or verses. Go fast or slow, according to what you are studying. Sometimes one verse, sometimes many chapters.
Study the Bible Daily.
IV. Have a Definite Amount of Time Set Apart for Bible Study and
a Definite Time in the Day for it.
Don’t trust to chance. Give the Bible the first place. Let all other books and all magazines and papers have a secondary place. One of the greatest enemies of profitable study is hurry. One of the greatest secrets of profitable Bible study is undisturbed concentration of thought, The best time, other things being equal, is the early morning.
V. Study Prayerfully.
PS.cbtOr as.
VI. As the Word of God.
1 Thess: 4913:
1, Humbly and meekly. Cf. Jas. 1: 21.
2. Unquestioning acceptance of its teaching when definitely and clearly ascertained,
3. Absolute reliance upon its promises.
4. Prompt, exact, unquestioning obedience to every commandment.
5. Asin God’s presence. ‘‘God says this to me.”’
VII. Have some Intelligent and Definite and Systematic Method
of Bible Study.
1. Study of the Bible in course.
(a) Five points on each chapter.
(1) Subject of the chapter. State principal contents of a chapter in a sentence.
(2) Principal persons.
(3) Leading lesson. Truth most emphasized.
(4) Best lesson.
(5) Best verse. Ponder it and mark it.
(b) Synthetic.
(1) Read continuously.
(2) Read repeatedly.
(3) Read independently.
(4) Read prayerfully.
2. Thorough study of individual books.
3. Topical.
(a) Be systematic.
(b) Be thorough.
(c) Be exact.
(d) Write down your results.
4. Study for personal work.
FIVE PLAIN RULES FOR HOLY LIVING
IntRopuCTION. — The Bible is a plain book for plain people. It is true that the Bible sometimes takes us up to heights where our heads swim at the prospect that stretches before us. It is true also that there are places in this book so deep that no scholar’s plummet has ever yet struck bottom. But the book abounds in plain, simple directions for every-day living. I come to you to-day with four simple rules for holy and healthy and happy living. It may seem to some of you like milk for babes, but it is well to remember that there are babes in most families, and even those who are sure they are full grown need plain victuals occasionally lest they get the dyspepsia. The fact is there are many spiritual dyspeptics in our day, and they are always grumbling at the food unless it is prepared by their own spiritual cook.
I. “Whatsoever He Saith unto you, Do it.”’
John. 2:5.
These words were spoken on a certain occasion concerning Jesus by His mother. They gave directions as to the way out of an emergency then at hand. But they point the shortest and best way out of all emergencies that ever arise. ~There is no better rule for holy, healthy, and happy living than this, ‘‘Whatsoever Jesus says unto you, do it.’” Whenever in a quandary what to do, just find out what Jesus says and doit. Never mind what it is that He says, doit. The thing that He says to do may seem very insignificant, a matter of no great importance. Never mind that, doit. Something else may seem very like it, or ‘‘quite as good,’’ but don’t you do that something else. Do the thing, the exact thing that Jesus says. How many people are robbed of blessing by doing something ‘‘just as good”’ as what Jesus said, instead of doing the very thing Jesus says. ‘‘Do it.’’ ‘‘Whatsoever.’’ ‘“Whatsoever.’’ How are we to tell what Jesus says? He is here in the written Word, the words which He Himself spoke directly and the words which He spoke by His Spirit through apostles and prophets. Besides that He is present personally. Matt. 28:20. If we are fully surrendered to His will He is always at hand to make known that will tous. Don’t ask Him to make clear by His Spirit what He has already made clear by His Word.
II. “Do as Jesus Did,’’ or to put it another way, “Do as Jesus would Do if He were in Your Place.’’ 1 John 2: 6.
III. ‘“Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin.’’ The Rule is this: “Do Nothing that you have Doubts about.’’ Rom. 14: 23.
IV. “Whatsoever ye Do, do All to the Glory of God.” There are really two Rules in that one. The First is, Do Nothing that you can’t do to God’s Glory; that Settles a good’ many Questions. Second, When you Do the thing that you could Do to His Glory, actually Do it to His Glory. q-COT. 10731.
V. Throw your Soul into Everything you Do; as unto the Lord, heartily.
Col. 3: 23.
GREAT THINGS, AND HOW ANY ONE CAN
GET THEM
INTRODUCTION. — There are many who think that only a few men can ever attain unto great things, that the great mass of men must rest content with small things. “This is not so, The very greatest things, the things of infinite and eternal value, are open to all men. There is not a man or woman here to-night who cannot have great things, the very greatest, those of most priceless worth.
I. First of all any one here can have Great Joy.
1 Pet. 1: 8.
II. Great Peace.
Philo 4: 6;::7.
III. Great Position.
John. 1:12. This position is open to any one who wishes
to fill it. ‘‘As many as received Him to them,”’ etc. IV. A Great Hope.
pDAte TE 82.
V. A Great Inheritance.
1 Pet. 1:4, 5; Rom. 8: 17.
D. L. MOODY: THE UNITY OF HIS LIFE “This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”’ Phil. 3: 13, 14. Intrropuction. — Mr. Moody loved to urge men to concentration of purpose and effort. He practiced it even better than he preached it. His life was a constant and unanswerable argument for the power of concentration of purpose and
action. His life was one of marvelous unity. There was in
it a seven-fold unity.
I. First of all, he was a man of one passion, love for Jesus Christ.
II. A man of but one aim, that aim was to please God.
III. He was a man of one book, the Bible.
IV. A man of one work, soul-saving. Mr. Moody did many things, but he always had one definite end in view, the salvation of the lost.
V. A marrof one idea, ‘‘God is love.’’
VI. A man of one source of power, the Holy Ghost.
VII. A man of one endeavor, ‘‘to do what he could.”
MESSIANIC PROPHECIES
IntrRopuction. — Importance of subject. Peter’s argument on the Day of Pentecost. Acts 2, Paul’s argument. Actsg:22; 1:3. Christ’sargument. Luke 24:27, 44. There are said to be 333 prophecies and references to Christ in the Old Testament which are expressly cited in the New Testament.
I. Classes of Messianic Prophecies.
1, Explicit prophecies that refer directly and wholly to.
the coming Messiah.
2. Explicit prophecies that have an immediate reference to contemporaneous or nearly contemporaneous persons and events, but which have their final and complete fulfillment in the Messiah.
3. Passages the Messianic application of which is not explicitly noted but which are fulfilled and marvelously fulfilled in Christ.
4. Types.
To the first class of prophecies — those that refer directly and wholly to the Messiah belong; e. g., Is. 53; Gen. 49:10; Mic. 5:2. A very strong attempt has been and is being made to show that Is. 53 is not
Messianic. It is said to refer to suffering Israel.
This chapter cannot refer to Israel.
(a) The sufferer is represented as perfectly innocent and suffering for the sins of others. Vs. 9, 5, 6, 8.
(b) He is a voluntary and unresisting sufferer. V. 7.
(c) The sufferer is stricken for the transgression of another than himself, viz., God’s people. V. 8. But Israel is God’s people, so the sufferer cannot be. This 53d chapter has been accepted by the Jews themselves as Messianic in the Targruns, the Talmud, the Zohar. In the Jewish prayers on the Day of Atonement and by the Jews at the present time. To the second class of prophecies those, etc., belonc- ee ls)49 340s, 722.45; To the third class of prophecies belongs Ps. 22 (vsoiit, 68814, 18). To the types belong all the sacrifices and institutions and personages; e. g., the Passover, Ex. 12, the goats on Day of Atonement, Lev. 16. The typical personages, Joseph, Gen. 37, David, Solomon; e. g., 1 Kings 4: 24-34; 10: 1-9.
Il. The Development of Messianic Prophecy.
III.
Messianic prophecy in the Bible like everything else in God’s world and Word grows. First we have only the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head. Gen>3: 15.
Next it is Shem’s descendants. Gen. g: 26, 27.
Then it is the seed of Abraham.
Then it is the tribe of Judah. Gen, 49: 10.
Then the Son of David.
Other particulars also are being constantly added.
What is Prophesied of the Messiah in the Old Testament.
1, His family. Jer. 23:5, 6; 33:15, 16. Of the family of David. He was to be born at a time when that family had been cut down and lost its glory.
2, State of family at His birth. Is. 53:2; 11:1, R. V.
. The time of His appearing. Gen. 49:10; Hag. 27:9;
Dan. 9: 25.
. The place. Mic. 5:2. Bethlehem.
. His nature.
(a) Mic. 5:2; Ps. 45:6; Ps. r10:1; Ps. 2: 7; Is. 9:6. Divine. (b) Is. 53:3. Human.
. His character.
(a) Ig; 532720, Meek.
(b) Is. 42: 3. Gentle.
(c) Is. 42:2. Retiring. Avoiding notoriety.
(d) Is. 42: 1;.11: 2. ull of the Spirit.
(e) Is. 42:4. Persevering.
(f) Is. 11:5. Righteous and faithful. (gz) Is. 53: 10, 9, 4. Absolutely sinless. (Implied also TOWS. (60, Saye sa)
. Manner of birth.
Is. 7:14. Born of a virgin (see also Ps. 69: 8; 86: 16; 116: 16.
. How treated by men.
(a) Is. 53:3; Ps. 118: 22. Despised and rejected.
(b) Ps, -22:)3.. sk ingsref earth etc.
(c) Is. 50:6. Scourged, insulted, spit upon.
(d) Zech. 11:13. Sold for thirty pieces of silver.
(e) Is. 53:7, 8. Killed. Zech. 13:7. Details of His death.
(x) Is. 53:5. Pierced. (Heb.) Zech. 12: 10.
(a2) Ps 22:14, 17.
(3) Ps. 22: 7, 8. Mocked while dying.
(4) Ps. 22:18. Garments parted while dying.
(5) Ps. 69: 21. Given gall vinegar.
(6) Isa. 53:12. Made intercession for transgressors when He bore their sins.
(7) Heart breaks. Ps. 69:20; 22: 14.
(8) Is. 53: 12, 9. Numbered with transgressors,
made His grave with wicked and with the
rich.
(f) Ps. rro: 1, 3, R. V. His people will offer, etc. (g) His Resurrection. Is. 53: 10, 11; Ps. 16: 10.
{h) Ascension and seating at the right hand of God.
Ps. 68:
TS aA Ney eS ETO. L,
(i) Two advents.
(x) Once born as a man to be cut off. Mic. 5: 1, 2;
Dan. 9: 26.
(2) Once coming in clouds. Dan. 7:9, 10, 13,
ry BAO VE Salo ee
(j) His work.
(cys:
53:6, 8, 12. He should die in the place of
others. Is. 53: 10, R. V., margin.
(2) He should be made a guilt offering for sin.
(3) Is.
a.
b.
c.
d.
61: 1-3.
Preach good tidings, etc.
Bind up broken-hearted.
Proclaim liberty to captives, the opening
of prisons, etc.
To proclaim the acceptable year of the
Lord and the day of vengeance of our
God.
. To comfort all that mourn.
To give unto those that mourn in Zion a
garland for ashes, the oil of joy for
mourning, the garment of praise for the
Spirit of heaviness.
(4) Jer. 23:5, 6. To reignas king and to execute
judgment and justice in the earth.
Character of His reign. Zech. 9:9.
mmo ap op
(5) Ps.
Psi453.6:’ 72: 5,17. Eternally.
Ps 1723 2.
Psrgasia:
Pso73.29:
Ps. 72:8. Universal.
Ps. 72: 9-11. Absolute.
—PIPSAGari2) T3004.
F107 .4.. A priest.
(6) Deut. 18: 15-18. A prophet.
(7) Is.
42:5, 6; 49:6; 60:1-3. A light of the
Gentiles.
IV. Is Jesus of the New Testament this Prophesied Christ of the Old Testament?
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST (1)
I. The Certainty of His Coming Again.
John r¢23; Heb. 9: 28; Phil,.3: 20,01; a Thess. 4:16, 275
Acts 3:20. The coming again referred to in these passages is not an event that has already occurred.
1. Christ’s coming at death, not the coming referred to. (a) Whatever coming of the Lord to meet us there
may be at death — and there may be in a sense
such a coming — He does not descend from
heaven with the voice of the archangel and the
trump of God, and all those who sleep in Christ
are certainly not raised from their graves at the
death of the individual believer. To refer this
language to what occurs at death is to transform
an inspired apostle into a crazy rhetorician.
(b) Jesus clearly and definitely distinguished between death and His coming again in John 21: 22.
2. Not the coming of Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The coming of the Holy Spirit is in a very real sense a coming of Christ. John 14: 15-18, 21-23. But it certainly is not the coming referred to in the passages under consideration.
(a) This is clear from the fact that al! of these promises but one (John 14:3) were made after the coming of the Holy Spirit and referred to something still in the future.
(b) It is clear again from the fact that Jesus does not receive us to be with Him at the coming of the Holy Ghost.
(c) The various things mentioned as occurring at His coming are all wanting at the coming of the Spirit.
3. Not the destruction of Jerusalem. ‘The destruction of Jerusalem was in some sense the precursor, prophecy and type of the Day of the Lord that istocome. But
God’s judgment on Jerusalem in its destruction is manifestly not the event predicted in the passages given.
Years after Jerusalem had been destroyed we find John still looking forward to the Lord’s second coming as an event lying still in the future. Not any of these three events, death, the coming of the Spirit, ’ the destruction of Jerusalem, nor all of them together, nor any other event of history that has as yet occurred, fulfills the very plain, explicit and definite predictions of Christ and the apostles regarding Christ’s coming again.
II. The Manner of His Coming. 1. His coming will be personal. It is Jesus Himself.
John 14:3; 1 Thess. 4:16. ‘‘I myself.’’ ‘‘Himself.’’ Acts 1:11, R. V. The Lord Jesus Christ. Phil. 3:20, R.V.
. Bodily and visible. Heb. 9:28; Rev. 1:7; Acts 1:11.
So beheld, beheld.
. With great publicity. Rev. 1:7; Matt. 24: 26, 27.
4. With great power and glory. Matt. 24:30; Matt.
503/27.
. Sudden and unexpected. Matt. 24:42, R. V.; Matt.
24:44; Rev. 16:15; Luke 21: 34-36.
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST (2)
{. The Purpose and Results of Christ’s Coming Again. 1. John 14:3. Jesus Christ is coming again to receive
His own unto Himself, that where He is, there they may be also.
2. Phil. 3:20, 21. Jesus Christ is coming again to fashion anew the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of His glory.
3. 1 John 3:1, 2. Jesus Christ is coming again to bring
us unto perfect conformity with Himself.
4. Matt. 25:19 and 16:27. Jesus Christ is coming again
to reckon with His servants and to reward them
according to their works. 1 Cor. 3: 13-15.
5. 2 Thess. 1:10. Jesus Christ is coming ‘‘to be glorified in His saints, and to be marveled at in all them that believed.’’
6. Rom. 11:26. Jesus Christ is coming again to deliver Israel and to turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Zech. 12-13:6; Ez. 37:23; 36:2§-27, 29; Zech. 8:3, 7, 8; Ez. 36:37, 38; Jer. 31: 3-7; Ez. 36: 33-375 Zech, 8: 3-5, R. V.; Zech. “8: 23% Isa. 49: 22, 23.
7. Jude 14, 15, R. V. Jesus Christ is coming again to “execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness which they have ungodly wrought, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” He is coming to render vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. 2 Thess. 1:7, 8.
8, Like 19:3, 015;) Matt. asi4r; Zech 14-4, Jesas Christ is coming to reign as a King. Jer. 23:5, 6; Ps. (23°63) .Rev.) 19: £2, 35) 16 ss40 4505 owas tora acer 2, 4, 5-
The coming again of Jesus Christ is the solution and only solution of all social problems.
Oppression, poverty, crime, greed, injustice, will be at an end. ‘The eafth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.’”’ Is. 11:9.
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST (3)
¥. When is Christ Coming Again?
1. Mark. 13:32. The exact time of Christ’s coming again no man knows, the angels do not know, and even Jesus Christ in the days of His humiliation and self-limitation of knowledge did not know. Jesus Christ wished to so emphasize the utter folly of all attempts to fix the date that as a man He put away the knowledge of it Himself. Deut. 29:29; Acts 1: 7.
a. While we cannot set the date of our Lord’s return, the Bible does describe the character of the times.
(a) It will be at such a time as when His disciples think not. Matt. 24: 44.
(b) The world will not be looking for some great
catastrophe, but will be absorbed in their usual
pursuits. Luke 17: 26-30.
(c) The last days and the time of the coming again of the Son of Man will be a time of apostasy, grievous times, and faith will be hard to find. 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 3:1-5, R. V.; Luke 18: 8.
3. The Lord may, for anything we know, come any time,
any day, any hour. Mark 13: 34-36; Luke 12: 36; Matt. 25:13; Matt. 24: 42, 44. ‘Is not the world to be converted before He comes?’’ Rev. 1:7; Matt. 25:31, 32; 2 Thess. 2: 2-4, 8; Luke 18:3s °21:’35; 2 Tim. 3:4:5; Matt. 24:14. Preaching for a witness is not the conversion of the world. Furthermore, this is before ‘‘the end” comes; but the coming of Christ in the air is not the end but the beginning of the end. Further still, the Gospel has in a sense, a biblical sense, too, been already preached to all nations. Rom. 10:18; Col. 1223, 4. V. 2 Thess. 2:1-4. The day of the Lord is not the coming of Christ in the air for His church, but His coming with His church to the earth in judgment. There may be, probably will be, an interval of several years between these two. It is doubtful if the Man of Sin can be revealed until the church is taken out of the way. V. 7. There is nothing whatever revealed in the Bible that must take place before Christ comes.
II. Our Attitude Toward the Coming of Christ.
1. We should be ready for our Lord’s coming. Matt. 24:44. This is the great Bible argument for a pure, unselfish, devoted, unworldly, active life.
What constitutes readiness for the coming of Christ? Luke 21: 34-36. The two parables in Matt. 25. 1
John 2: 28,
2, Luke 12:36, R. V. We should be watching and looking for the coming of our Lord.
3. 2 Pet. 3:12, R. V. We should earnestly desire the coming of our Lord. 2 Tim. 4: 8.
THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY
I. The Certainty of the Resurrection.
The resurrection of those asleep in Jesus is certain because it is certain that Jesus Christ Himself arose. 1 Thess. 4:14, R. V.; 2 Cor. 4:14. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the sure guarantee of our own.
There-are a good many things about the future that are uncertain. There is one thing that is absolutely certain, i. e., that these bodies of our dear ones who have fallen asleep in Jesus shall some day rise again.
II. The Character of the Ressurrection, or How are the Dead Raised?
1, 1 Cor. 15: 35-38. The resurrection body will not be precisely the same body that is laid in the grave. It may be like it in many respects, but in others it will be very unlike it, infinitely superior. We shall recognize our loved ones in the world to come. 1 Thess. 5: 13-15. ‘*Together with them.’’
a. The resurrection body will be incorruptible. 1 Cor. Lew P
3. The resurrection body will be glorious and mighty. 1 Cor. 15: 43; Phil. 3: 20, 21; Dan. 12:3. Shine forth as the sun. Matt. 22: 30; Luke 20: 35, 36.
4. Will be a heavenly body. 1 Cor. 15: 47-49. Earth has nothing like it. Rom. 8:23; Phil. 2:6; John.
17:5: 5. Will be like the body of Christ’s glory. Phil. 3: 20,
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HEAVEN: WHAT SORT OF A PLACE IT IS AND
HOW TO GET THERE
InTRODUCTION. — There are many who think we know
nothing about heaven, that it is all guess work. This is not so. God has revealed to us very much about it, and what He has revealed about it is very cheering and eminently calculated to awaken in every wise and true heart a desire to go there. If we reflected more about heaven it would help us to bear our burdens here more bravely, it would incite us to holier living, it would do much to deliver us from the power of the greed and the lust that is blighting so many lives, it would make us cheerier and more sunshiny. Those are very shallow philosophers who tell us that our present business is to live this present life and let the future take care of itself. You might as well tell the school boy that his present business is to live to-day and take no outlook into the future life of manhood, that he might wisely prepare for it on the one hand and feel its stimulus on the other. True thoughts :of the life that is to come clothe the life that now is with new beauty and strength.
I. Heaven is a Place.
John 14: 3.
II. What Sort of a Place is Heaven?
1. It is a place of incomparable external as well as internal
beauty. This appears from such descriptions as we
have in the 21st and 22d chapters of Revelation.
The God of the Bible is a God of beauty.
a. Heaven will be a place of holy and ennobling companionships. On the other hand there will be no unpleasant and degrading companionships. The devil will not be there. The lewd and the vulgar and the obscene will not be there. The avaricious and the scheming and the selfish will not be there. The liar and the slanderer and the backbiter and the meddler and the gossip will not be there.
3. Heaven will be a place that is free from everything that curses or mars our life here. There will be no sin. There will be no servile grinding toil, There will be no sickness or pain. Rev. 21: 4.
4. Heaven will be a place of universal and perfect knowledge. 1 Cor. 13:12.
5. Heaven will be a place of universal and perfect love. 1 John 3:2; 1 John 4:8; Prov. 15: 17.
6. Heaven will be a place of praise. Rev. 7: 9-12. 7. Heaven will be a city which hath foundations, a continuing city, Heb. 11:10; Heb. 13: 14.
Conctusion. — Is no heart stirred with a longing for that “better country’? Heb. 11:16. We may all gain an entrance there. There is but one way, but that is very simple and open toail, John 14:6; 10:9. Accept Christ at once, and gain a right to enter and live forever in heaven.