He That Winneth Souls Is Wise # 3
He prayed. She wept and he slipped out. Her husband came in and noticed that her eyes were red. He said, "Has anybody insulted you?" She said, "The queerest little man was here a little while ago and he talked so nice to me about Jesus." He said, "If I had been here I would have told him to go along and mind his business." She said, "I wish you had been here. you would have thought he was minding his business. His business was a mission for his King, to bring people to Jesus Christ."
Vassar distributed tracts in the army. He worked with the American Bible Society. When the chaplain died, they wanted Vassar to take the place of the chaplain. He wasn't ordained and the government law does not allow anybody to be a chaplain who hasn't been ordained. He came up to Poughkeepsie and they examining him. One fellow with cinders all over his back, said, "Mr. Vassar, your duty now is to distribute tracts. Your salary is three hundred dollars a year, and you wish to be ordained?"
"Yes, sir."
"Does that mean an increase of salary?"
"Yes, sir, fifteen hundred dollars a year."
Then he said, "The increase of salary has allured you and brought you here for us to ordain."
Vassar said, "Stop where you are! I don't want it; I won't take it if you give it to me," and he wouldn't. He went back to distributing tracts for three hundred dollars a year, to do something for Jesus Christ. He was a wonder. God did marvelous things through him.
"Are you lonesome?" a man asked a lighthouse keeper. "Are you lonesome out on this lonesome spot?" He said, "I was before I saved four men from drowning...Is that a boat out there?" He was always on the lookout for other boats that he might save men from a watery grave.
Get somebody else for Jesus Christ and you will get a new vision of life, a new vision of what it means. It is something besides going to church and keeping warm a little spot seventeen inches square for a half hour and listening to a sermonette. You had better squirm around in your seat and stoop down! You had better duck!
"He that winneth souls is wise." Some people think it is beneath their dignity. Then you live on a higher plane than your Master, for he went about doing good wherever He was in the world.
A lady said to a friend of mine, "Do you think that my blindness will hinder me?" My friend answered, "it is a misfortune, but I don't know. I have the opinion it will be a help to you, because people will come up to you to express their sympathy for your lack of sight and that will give you the opportunity to speak of Jesus."
"Oh," she said, "I don't mean in an effort like that, but to stand on the platform." She thought the only way to serve God was to get in the spotlight, not to be doing something with the people whom she might shake hands with day by day in her home.
A man was thinking of entering evangelistic work. He came to my friend, Dr. Chapman, and said, "I am thinking of entering evangelistic work."
"That's good." Dr Chapman said.
"I think I will begin out in Colorado - Denver and Colorado Springs, and out in Pasadena, California. My relatives are there."
My friend said, "Have you any brothers or sisters?"
"Yes, I have."
"Are they Christians?"
"Well," he said, "I don't know. When we set up the estate four years ago my brother and I had a quarrel over it and we haven't spoken since."
"And your sister?"
"My sister took my brother's views of the proposition and she hasn't spoken to me since. I haven't been in her home."
Dr. Chapman said, "What do you intend to do?"
He said, "Evangelistic work."
Dr. Chapman said, "The Bible says, 'First be reconciled to thy brother.' If you start out the way you are, failure is written all over you. 'If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me,' the Bible tells me, so that is no use trying to bother your head about God for He won't listen to you. That's as sure as you live."
~Billy Sunday~
(continued with # 4)
A Proliferation of Christian Devotionals and Sermons
Saturday, January 26, 2019
Saturday, January 19, 2019
He That Winneth Souls Is Wise # 2
He That Winneth Souls Is Wise # 2
Those men used to meet every day. They used to pound this into them: "You are not responsible for who is elected; you are not responsible for who goes to Washington, Harrison or Cleveland. You are not responsible who carries this state, this city; but you are responsible to know every man in your block and to know how he votes, and if he votes." They kept pounding that one thing into the men - "Know the block! Know the block!"
They watched the town, and when the votes were counted, Ben Harrison went to Washington instead of Grover Cleveland. That was the way they put it over.
Now that is what Jesus Christ said. In other words, men will work harder to win in business and politics than the church will in religion. I am disgusted with them all! You think you can just open your church door and ring a church bell and people will come. That has been going on long enough. The church has got to wake up and do something.
You simply think that because the calendar announces that it is the Lord's day that that is all you have to do, and that if you put on a little better dress and look a little more pious that that is serving the Lord, and you go to the devil in six days in the week.
What is the the church doing to win people for Christ? I bet a lot of you don't know whether or not people right around in your neighborhood are Christians. We never do anything; no wonder the world is going to the devil!
Soul winning, the most effective work in the world
Another thing; it is the simplest and most effective work in the world. Andrew wins Peter; Peter turns around and wins three thousand at Pentecost.
Years ago a man went into a shoe store in Boston and found a young fellow selling shoes and boots. He talked to him about Jesus Christ and won him for Christ. The name of that little boy was Dwight L. Moody. Do you know the name of the man who won Moody for Christ? I don't suppose there are five people in this audience who do. His name was Kimball. God used Kimball to win Moody, but He used Moody to win the multitude.
Andrew didn't have sense enough to win the multitude, but Peter did. That is the way God works! Oh, I get so sick of people being dead! You have sat around so long you have mildewed.
The Earl of Shaftsbury, who gave sixty-five years of his life working among the costermongers, the fallen, the submerged and mudstills of London, was won to Jesus Christ by a servant girl in his home. He was wavering, going down the line with the gang of young bloods when his father died. This servant girl, a godly girl, said "You inherit all the honor and all the wealth that goes along with the name of Shaftsbury, but you are going to a premature grave because of the way you are going, the life you are living, and bring disgrace upon your father's memory and your mother's?" The Earl of Shaftsbury, when he was eighteen years old, fell on his knees and gave his heart to Jesus Christ. When he died, his funeral was the greatest ever held in England except when a king or queen had died.
See what the girl did? She won him to the Lord and then the Lord took him and used him to win the multitudes. Charles G. Finney, after learning the name of a man or woman, invariably asked, "Are you a Christian?"
The Soul Winning Work of John Vassar
John Vassar was one of the greatest personal workers of the nineteenth century. He never preached a sermon but that he did personal work. He was a wonder. One time he was going to help a preacher in a town. This preacher met Vassar at the Depot. Walking down to the hotel they went past a blacksmith shop. He said to Vassar, "There's a blacksmith in there. He's got a great drag with his crowd but he never comes to church. If we could only win him, then he would win scores in his class." Vassar asked, "Have you talked to him?" "Oh, we are afraid. He will cuss any preacher who comes near him." He said, "Wait a minute until I take my turn." Vassar went in. The man shoeing a mule - that isn't a good time to talk religion to a man, take it from me! But Vassar had good sense and waited until the fellow was through and had disarmed his prejudice. In fifteen minutes he had him on his knees weeping like a child. He went up to the hotel where he was entertained. He registered, then strolled around, looking for somebody to speak to. He went into a little reception room and there say a finely dressed lady. He walked up to her and said, "Lady, are you a Christian?" She said, "Yes, I am." "I beg your pardon," he said, "I didn't mean that kind. I mean, have you been born again?"
"Oh, she said, "we've gotten over that here in Boston." "Well," he said, "lady, you've gotten over Jesus Christ in Boston, too. You've gotten over God." He talked with her until her prejudice was disarmed and tears trickled down her cheeks; then he said, "May I pray for you?" She said, "I wish you would. God knows I need it, although I'm a member of the church."
~Billy Sunday~
(continued with # 3)
Those men used to meet every day. They used to pound this into them: "You are not responsible for who is elected; you are not responsible for who goes to Washington, Harrison or Cleveland. You are not responsible who carries this state, this city; but you are responsible to know every man in your block and to know how he votes, and if he votes." They kept pounding that one thing into the men - "Know the block! Know the block!"
They watched the town, and when the votes were counted, Ben Harrison went to Washington instead of Grover Cleveland. That was the way they put it over.
Now that is what Jesus Christ said. In other words, men will work harder to win in business and politics than the church will in religion. I am disgusted with them all! You think you can just open your church door and ring a church bell and people will come. That has been going on long enough. The church has got to wake up and do something.
You simply think that because the calendar announces that it is the Lord's day that that is all you have to do, and that if you put on a little better dress and look a little more pious that that is serving the Lord, and you go to the devil in six days in the week.
What is the the church doing to win people for Christ? I bet a lot of you don't know whether or not people right around in your neighborhood are Christians. We never do anything; no wonder the world is going to the devil!
Soul winning, the most effective work in the world
Another thing; it is the simplest and most effective work in the world. Andrew wins Peter; Peter turns around and wins three thousand at Pentecost.
Years ago a man went into a shoe store in Boston and found a young fellow selling shoes and boots. He talked to him about Jesus Christ and won him for Christ. The name of that little boy was Dwight L. Moody. Do you know the name of the man who won Moody for Christ? I don't suppose there are five people in this audience who do. His name was Kimball. God used Kimball to win Moody, but He used Moody to win the multitude.
Andrew didn't have sense enough to win the multitude, but Peter did. That is the way God works! Oh, I get so sick of people being dead! You have sat around so long you have mildewed.
The Earl of Shaftsbury, who gave sixty-five years of his life working among the costermongers, the fallen, the submerged and mudstills of London, was won to Jesus Christ by a servant girl in his home. He was wavering, going down the line with the gang of young bloods when his father died. This servant girl, a godly girl, said "You inherit all the honor and all the wealth that goes along with the name of Shaftsbury, but you are going to a premature grave because of the way you are going, the life you are living, and bring disgrace upon your father's memory and your mother's?" The Earl of Shaftsbury, when he was eighteen years old, fell on his knees and gave his heart to Jesus Christ. When he died, his funeral was the greatest ever held in England except when a king or queen had died.
See what the girl did? She won him to the Lord and then the Lord took him and used him to win the multitudes. Charles G. Finney, after learning the name of a man or woman, invariably asked, "Are you a Christian?"
The Soul Winning Work of John Vassar
John Vassar was one of the greatest personal workers of the nineteenth century. He never preached a sermon but that he did personal work. He was a wonder. One time he was going to help a preacher in a town. This preacher met Vassar at the Depot. Walking down to the hotel they went past a blacksmith shop. He said to Vassar, "There's a blacksmith in there. He's got a great drag with his crowd but he never comes to church. If we could only win him, then he would win scores in his class." Vassar asked, "Have you talked to him?" "Oh, we are afraid. He will cuss any preacher who comes near him." He said, "Wait a minute until I take my turn." Vassar went in. The man shoeing a mule - that isn't a good time to talk religion to a man, take it from me! But Vassar had good sense and waited until the fellow was through and had disarmed his prejudice. In fifteen minutes he had him on his knees weeping like a child. He went up to the hotel where he was entertained. He registered, then strolled around, looking for somebody to speak to. He went into a little reception room and there say a finely dressed lady. He walked up to her and said, "Lady, are you a Christian?" She said, "Yes, I am." "I beg your pardon," he said, "I didn't mean that kind. I mean, have you been born again?"
"Oh, she said, "we've gotten over that here in Boston." "Well," he said, "lady, you've gotten over Jesus Christ in Boston, too. You've gotten over God." He talked with her until her prejudice was disarmed and tears trickled down her cheeks; then he said, "May I pray for you?" She said, "I wish you would. God knows I need it, although I'm a member of the church."
~Billy Sunday~
(continued with # 3)
What Jesus Taught Us To Pray
What Jesus Taught Us To Pray
Jesus Christ was and is God! For a moment in time, He left His unseen eternal home to enter into human history as a man. His life, suffering, death, and resurrection were documented historical events - facts, not fables told by creative storytellers. What He taught us about humility, death and resurrection is not open to our re-interpretation.
"If we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed," wrote the apostle Paul (Galatians 1:1-24).
If we will come to Him in our need, repent of our sins, trust in His saving death on the Cross, and let His Word, like a beacon of light, guide us through each day - and through the storms ahead, He will prove His grace and faithfulness over and over again. One simple way to come close to Him, is simply to follow this prayer outline Jesus taught His disciples long ago.
The Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13)
In New Testament times, rabbis often provided index-prayers or patterns for prayer. Each short part focused on one essential part of our relationship with Him. The Lord's prayer can do that and far more, if we will use it as a pathway to intimacy with God. When we do, He opens our eyes to see from His perspective, enables us to share His heart, and keeps us close to Himself as we continue our earthly journey.
1. Our Father in heaven, holy is Your Name. WORSHIP HIM! Whether by inner acknowledgement or outward motion, bow before the King, your Father and Shepherd, in faith, love, humility and surrender, the attitude of worship. Whisper or speak His names, letting them remind you of all that He is, all that He has, and all that He wants to share with you, His precious bride.
2. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven. SURRENDER TO HIM! Our King reigns - He always has and He always will. Today, the goodness of His kingdom is demonstrated wherever His will is known and followed. Pray that the King will reign in your heart and do His will through your life this day. (Mark 14:36; John 4:34; 5:30; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.
3. Give us this day our daily bread. TRUST HIM FOR DAILY PROVISION! Jesus, Himself the Bread of life. When you give yourself to Him, He gives Himself to you. You become one with Him - not in the New Age sense where the human personality is absorbed into a pantheistic force - but in the privilege of sharing in His life. All that He is and has becomes available to you so that He can fulfill His purpose in you. This is covenant relationship, and it's far more wonderful than human thoughts can conceive. (Matt. 6:33; John 6:35-63; Psalm 62:5-6; Eph. 3:14-19).
4. Forgive us as we forgive. THANK HIM FOR HIS GRACE - AND SHARE IT WITH OTHERS! God calls us to be holy as he is holy; nothing less can qualify us for the heavenly throne room of our King. That means there must be no hindrance to the biblical oneness between Him and you, nor between you and His other friends. (Matt. 6:14-15; Heb. 4:14-16; James 5:16; 1 Pet. 1:16; 1 John 1:9, 3:23).
5. Deliver us from the evil one. BATTLE IN PRAYER! Stand firm in the spiritual victories Christ won for you at the Cross. They are living realities for those who belong to Him. So trust His Word and authority, then stand immovable against the enemies of the Kingdom. (Ex. 14:13; 2 Chron. 20:6:15; Psalm 18; Matt. 16:19; Eph. 6:10; 1 John 4:4; Rev. 12:10-11.
6. For Yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever! PRAISE HIM! TRUST HIM! The Kingdom belongs to God, but He shares its riches now and forever with His children who trust and follow Him. Unbounded grace is lavished (though we may not always recognize it) on those who love Him enough to hear His heart, share His concerns, and walk in His purpose. (Mark 11:22-24; John 15:7, 14:12-14; Phil. 4:4-7, 19; James 1:5-6, 4:3).
If you pray - pray with all your heart - through this outline and surrender your life into His loving hands. He will surely answer you, for you have asked according to His will (1 John 5:14-15). You are safe in Him, whether you live or die, for He surrounds you as an Armor and fills you with His very own life. Then you can stand with confidence on the wonderful promise He gives you in Romans 8:
"If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us!
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:31-39).
~Unknown~
Jesus Christ was and is God! For a moment in time, He left His unseen eternal home to enter into human history as a man. His life, suffering, death, and resurrection were documented historical events - facts, not fables told by creative storytellers. What He taught us about humility, death and resurrection is not open to our re-interpretation.
"If we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed," wrote the apostle Paul (Galatians 1:1-24).
If we will come to Him in our need, repent of our sins, trust in His saving death on the Cross, and let His Word, like a beacon of light, guide us through each day - and through the storms ahead, He will prove His grace and faithfulness over and over again. One simple way to come close to Him, is simply to follow this prayer outline Jesus taught His disciples long ago.
The Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13)
In New Testament times, rabbis often provided index-prayers or patterns for prayer. Each short part focused on one essential part of our relationship with Him. The Lord's prayer can do that and far more, if we will use it as a pathway to intimacy with God. When we do, He opens our eyes to see from His perspective, enables us to share His heart, and keeps us close to Himself as we continue our earthly journey.
1. Our Father in heaven, holy is Your Name. WORSHIP HIM! Whether by inner acknowledgement or outward motion, bow before the King, your Father and Shepherd, in faith, love, humility and surrender, the attitude of worship. Whisper or speak His names, letting them remind you of all that He is, all that He has, and all that He wants to share with you, His precious bride.
2. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven. SURRENDER TO HIM! Our King reigns - He always has and He always will. Today, the goodness of His kingdom is demonstrated wherever His will is known and followed. Pray that the King will reign in your heart and do His will through your life this day. (Mark 14:36; John 4:34; 5:30; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.
3. Give us this day our daily bread. TRUST HIM FOR DAILY PROVISION! Jesus, Himself the Bread of life. When you give yourself to Him, He gives Himself to you. You become one with Him - not in the New Age sense where the human personality is absorbed into a pantheistic force - but in the privilege of sharing in His life. All that He is and has becomes available to you so that He can fulfill His purpose in you. This is covenant relationship, and it's far more wonderful than human thoughts can conceive. (Matt. 6:33; John 6:35-63; Psalm 62:5-6; Eph. 3:14-19).
4. Forgive us as we forgive. THANK HIM FOR HIS GRACE - AND SHARE IT WITH OTHERS! God calls us to be holy as he is holy; nothing less can qualify us for the heavenly throne room of our King. That means there must be no hindrance to the biblical oneness between Him and you, nor between you and His other friends. (Matt. 6:14-15; Heb. 4:14-16; James 5:16; 1 Pet. 1:16; 1 John 1:9, 3:23).
5. Deliver us from the evil one. BATTLE IN PRAYER! Stand firm in the spiritual victories Christ won for you at the Cross. They are living realities for those who belong to Him. So trust His Word and authority, then stand immovable against the enemies of the Kingdom. (Ex. 14:13; 2 Chron. 20:6:15; Psalm 18; Matt. 16:19; Eph. 6:10; 1 John 4:4; Rev. 12:10-11.
6. For Yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever! PRAISE HIM! TRUST HIM! The Kingdom belongs to God, but He shares its riches now and forever with His children who trust and follow Him. Unbounded grace is lavished (though we may not always recognize it) on those who love Him enough to hear His heart, share His concerns, and walk in His purpose. (Mark 11:22-24; John 15:7, 14:12-14; Phil. 4:4-7, 19; James 1:5-6, 4:3).
If you pray - pray with all your heart - through this outline and surrender your life into His loving hands. He will surely answer you, for you have asked according to His will (1 John 5:14-15). You are safe in Him, whether you live or die, for He surrounds you as an Armor and fills you with His very own life. Then you can stand with confidence on the wonderful promise He gives you in Romans 8:
"If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us!
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:31-39).
~Unknown~
He That Winneth Souls Is Wise # 1
He That Winneth Souls Is Wise # 1
Proverbs 11:30
There are vast multitudes in this enlightened land of ours who are in open rebellion against God. "We will not have this man, Jesus Christ, to reign over us," is the heartless cry that winds its flight from office, shop, store, factory, home, college, and the busy mart of trade. Lots of people are willing, my friends, to accept whatever they want from the Bible. They would like to codify it; they would like to sit down and eliminate that which isn't pleasant to them to receive and which they don't like to adjust their lives to, and insert something they would like. You take it as it is given, and if you don't,k you will go to hell. God almighty won't adjust His principles to suit the opinions of anybody! The Lord has made His revelation known to the world, and it is up to you and not to the Lord. He has done all He ever will or can do to save this world. He has given sunshine and rain and ground; it is up to you to plant the seed, to plow it or starve to death. God has done His part; He will do no more.
Church and Business Fail Because They Have No Definite Aim
They say they will give us the Sermon on the Mount, or the Decalogue, minus the things they don't like. They say, "We have no king but "self"; and the only law that multitudes of people recognize is the law of their own desires and ambitions. They do the thing because they personally want to do it, and they do not give a rap what influence it has upon their character of what influence their conduct has upon others who are looking to them for an example. All the law they know is the law of their own desire. That's all!
"And so our Lord is now rejected; And by the world disowned. By the many still neglected, But by the few enthroned." That is true of the denominations that are represented in these meetings, too. Out in a western state four years ago a report was made that during that year (there were 300 churches of that denomination in that state and they spent $300,000 for current expenses) they held 46,000 meetings and during the year there were just 87 men and women converted and joined those churches on confession of faith. I suppose that is this safe and sane evangelism that I hear so much about. It wouldn't take the world long to get into hell if that is all there is to it! In Chicago just a few years ago the church made a report. There was an average of five who joined each church on confession of faith - some more, some less - but it averaged five a year. And the last year 7,5000 churches of all denominations made reports and not one accession that year on confession of faith. All right, look at it! Just face the conditions and you will see why probably I talk in a way that grates on your nerves, but you will realize that I am only telling you the truth.
Now, what is lacking? Why these meager results? Why the expenditure of so much energy and time and money? It is because there is not a definite effort put forth to persuade a definite person to accept a definite Saviour at a definite time - and that time is NOW. That is the whole thing in a nutshell, boiled down to one sentence. That is why we are not making headway.
But wait! This element of failure is not simply confined to the church. Ninety-nine per cent of the businessmen fail. A banker told me in Chicago that forty years ago there were one hundred business houses, any one of whose paper would have passed without protest, and today only four of those houses were named. The rest of them have been ruined, gone into bankruptcy, gone out of business. There were four of them after forty years and they all passed without protest at any bank.
Only about three men out of a thousand succeed. Seventy-five percent of the lawyers who graduate from law school fail to make good. Sixty-five percent of the physicians fail to make good. The failure of these three classes is due largely to the lack of definite, systematic work. No political battle is won on the stump. It is not the spellbinders from the rear end of a special train who turn the vote. Sometimes a bleary-eyed, bloated-faced, bull-necked, whiskey-soaked, tinhorn politician will win more votes than the most silver-tongued spellbinder who ever spouted the principles from the rear end of a special train.
Now to give you an illustration. New York state used to be the pivot state in the presidential election. It isn't anymore. They don't care how New York goes anymore. But it used to be "As goes New York." Everybody knows that the State of New York is Republican. Everybody knows that the city of New York is Democratic. In the state the Republican party figures that it must have about 125,000 or 150,000 majority to overcome the Democratic majority in New York. So when Ben Harrison and Grover Cleveland ran for President in 1888, they went to work. They took the city, divided it, and subdivided it until they got it down into blocks. They had a man over ever section and every subdivision, and they had the leading businessmen of the city in those places.
~Billy Sunday~
(continued with # 2)
Proverbs 11:30
There are vast multitudes in this enlightened land of ours who are in open rebellion against God. "We will not have this man, Jesus Christ, to reign over us," is the heartless cry that winds its flight from office, shop, store, factory, home, college, and the busy mart of trade. Lots of people are willing, my friends, to accept whatever they want from the Bible. They would like to codify it; they would like to sit down and eliminate that which isn't pleasant to them to receive and which they don't like to adjust their lives to, and insert something they would like. You take it as it is given, and if you don't,k you will go to hell. God almighty won't adjust His principles to suit the opinions of anybody! The Lord has made His revelation known to the world, and it is up to you and not to the Lord. He has done all He ever will or can do to save this world. He has given sunshine and rain and ground; it is up to you to plant the seed, to plow it or starve to death. God has done His part; He will do no more.
Church and Business Fail Because They Have No Definite Aim
They say they will give us the Sermon on the Mount, or the Decalogue, minus the things they don't like. They say, "We have no king but "self"; and the only law that multitudes of people recognize is the law of their own desires and ambitions. They do the thing because they personally want to do it, and they do not give a rap what influence it has upon their character of what influence their conduct has upon others who are looking to them for an example. All the law they know is the law of their own desire. That's all!
"And so our Lord is now rejected; And by the world disowned. By the many still neglected, But by the few enthroned." That is true of the denominations that are represented in these meetings, too. Out in a western state four years ago a report was made that during that year (there were 300 churches of that denomination in that state and they spent $300,000 for current expenses) they held 46,000 meetings and during the year there were just 87 men and women converted and joined those churches on confession of faith. I suppose that is this safe and sane evangelism that I hear so much about. It wouldn't take the world long to get into hell if that is all there is to it! In Chicago just a few years ago the church made a report. There was an average of five who joined each church on confession of faith - some more, some less - but it averaged five a year. And the last year 7,5000 churches of all denominations made reports and not one accession that year on confession of faith. All right, look at it! Just face the conditions and you will see why probably I talk in a way that grates on your nerves, but you will realize that I am only telling you the truth.
Now, what is lacking? Why these meager results? Why the expenditure of so much energy and time and money? It is because there is not a definite effort put forth to persuade a definite person to accept a definite Saviour at a definite time - and that time is NOW. That is the whole thing in a nutshell, boiled down to one sentence. That is why we are not making headway.
But wait! This element of failure is not simply confined to the church. Ninety-nine per cent of the businessmen fail. A banker told me in Chicago that forty years ago there were one hundred business houses, any one of whose paper would have passed without protest, and today only four of those houses were named. The rest of them have been ruined, gone into bankruptcy, gone out of business. There were four of them after forty years and they all passed without protest at any bank.
Only about three men out of a thousand succeed. Seventy-five percent of the lawyers who graduate from law school fail to make good. Sixty-five percent of the physicians fail to make good. The failure of these three classes is due largely to the lack of definite, systematic work. No political battle is won on the stump. It is not the spellbinders from the rear end of a special train who turn the vote. Sometimes a bleary-eyed, bloated-faced, bull-necked, whiskey-soaked, tinhorn politician will win more votes than the most silver-tongued spellbinder who ever spouted the principles from the rear end of a special train.
Now to give you an illustration. New York state used to be the pivot state in the presidential election. It isn't anymore. They don't care how New York goes anymore. But it used to be "As goes New York." Everybody knows that the State of New York is Republican. Everybody knows that the city of New York is Democratic. In the state the Republican party figures that it must have about 125,000 or 150,000 majority to overcome the Democratic majority in New York. So when Ben Harrison and Grover Cleveland ran for President in 1888, they went to work. They took the city, divided it, and subdivided it until they got it down into blocks. They had a man over ever section and every subdivision, and they had the leading businessmen of the city in those places.
~Billy Sunday~
(continued with # 2)
Saturday, January 12, 2019
Eternity # 2
Eternity # 2
You are going out into eternity. God pity you. Oh, to have no hope, no Saviour. How long and dark the way is. Answer me a question: Do you not think that in these days, especially these prosperous days, we are thinking too much of time and all too little of eternity? We are pursuing wealth and pleasure. We are forgetting God. I want to ask you a question: Do you think that we ought to be called to serious thought? I am neither a prophet nor a son of a prophet, but I know that will come to America if in her pursuit after pleasure and her love of power she continues to forget God - judgment will fall! Judgment! I tremble for the country that will not hear when God speaks, and for the man who builds for time and has no thought of the future.
Answer me this question: Do you really think that men at heart are indifferent? Let your mind run over the list of men you know. Do you think that they are indifferent? I do not. I know men fairly well. I know what they sometimes say with their lips. If I were to go through your shops and some of the workmen would tell me they were not interested in God, I should know they were not speaking the truth. If I were to go through your college halls and some student would say that he was not interested in spiritual things, I should know that he was speaking falsely. They are not indifferent. You walk the streets some day and your best friend passes you and you never see him. You take your seat by the fireside with the newspaper that you never read a line of. You were saying as you walked the streets, or as you sat by the fireside, or as you tossed restlessly upon your pillow: "God! Eternity! My soul! What must I do to be saved?"
A Christian gentleman went to one of the judges in the state of Georgia and said: "Judge, I hear that you and your wife are to separate." He was highly indignant,k and said: "Sir, that is an insult. No two people in this world have loved each other more devotedly.l Separate! Nothing could separate us." His friend said: "But, Judge, your wife is a Christian. She is far from well, and the doctor tells me that she cannot live long, and you are not a Christian. Your wife will go straight to God. You are turning your back on Him." The old judge stood with tears running down his cheeks and lips trembling as he said: "My God! I never thought of that!"
Men are not indifferent. Answer me this: Are you reckless? There is one heart beat between you and eternity. Yet you hold back as I plead with you, as your old mother prays for you, as your wife is in agony about you, as the ministers are heartbroken over you - and tomorrow, tomorrow may be eternity. God pity you. I do not understand you. Why do you not come to Jesus?
No man in all this world is satisfied without God. You are not. Tonight as I close my appeal to say to every man in this building: In God's name, why don't you turn? Why don't you turn. Drifting, drifting, drifting, out into the sea of Eternity! And I stand lifting you warning cry: Why don't you turn? Tell me why. The very atmosphere of this place seems filled with God. It may be that God is giving some of you your last call. The door is open and it may shut again. Turn now. Why will you die?
You know the old story. I happen to know the real truth about it, for a friend of mine was in a way associated with it. On the Harlem railroad a man kept the bridge. It was an old-fashioned drawbridge that turned with man power. You remember how he got a message to keep the bridge shut because a special train was coming. However, just as the order came he heard the whistle of a little tugboat, and saw that he only needed to throw the bridge a little to let the tug boat through with her flagstaff. After he had let the tug through he turned to throw the bridge back and something was out of order. He bent to his task, pulling and pushing. The sweat came in great drops from his brow. An agonizing cry rose from his heart. The special came down the track and through the open bridge, and scores of people were killed. The keeper of the drawbridge was a man under fifty, and in the night his hair turned as white as snow. My friend went to where they kept him until he died, and the man walked up and down in his little padded cell like a caged tiger, by day and by night, rarely sleeping. One thing he kept saying over and over again: "Oh, if I only had. If I only had. If I only had." When he became exhausted he would fall on his cot, only to rise again and say: "Oh, if I only had."
Tonight the door is wide open and people are praying and God is waiting. It would be an awful thing to go out into Eternity saying: "If I only had." Tonight I plead with you. I think God has sent me to some of you to give you another call. These meetings are going on because God in His mercy is flinging wide the door once more. Come in. Come in. You fathers here, you can never expect your boys to go in unless you go yourself. If my mother had not been a sweet, consistent Christian, dying at thirty-four, I wonder where I should have been. You young men, you boys and girls, everybody come in!
~Wilbur Chapman~
(The End)
You are going out into eternity. God pity you. Oh, to have no hope, no Saviour. How long and dark the way is. Answer me a question: Do you not think that in these days, especially these prosperous days, we are thinking too much of time and all too little of eternity? We are pursuing wealth and pleasure. We are forgetting God. I want to ask you a question: Do you think that we ought to be called to serious thought? I am neither a prophet nor a son of a prophet, but I know that will come to America if in her pursuit after pleasure and her love of power she continues to forget God - judgment will fall! Judgment! I tremble for the country that will not hear when God speaks, and for the man who builds for time and has no thought of the future.
Answer me this question: Do you really think that men at heart are indifferent? Let your mind run over the list of men you know. Do you think that they are indifferent? I do not. I know men fairly well. I know what they sometimes say with their lips. If I were to go through your shops and some of the workmen would tell me they were not interested in God, I should know they were not speaking the truth. If I were to go through your college halls and some student would say that he was not interested in spiritual things, I should know that he was speaking falsely. They are not indifferent. You walk the streets some day and your best friend passes you and you never see him. You take your seat by the fireside with the newspaper that you never read a line of. You were saying as you walked the streets, or as you sat by the fireside, or as you tossed restlessly upon your pillow: "God! Eternity! My soul! What must I do to be saved?"
A Christian gentleman went to one of the judges in the state of Georgia and said: "Judge, I hear that you and your wife are to separate." He was highly indignant,k and said: "Sir, that is an insult. No two people in this world have loved each other more devotedly.l Separate! Nothing could separate us." His friend said: "But, Judge, your wife is a Christian. She is far from well, and the doctor tells me that she cannot live long, and you are not a Christian. Your wife will go straight to God. You are turning your back on Him." The old judge stood with tears running down his cheeks and lips trembling as he said: "My God! I never thought of that!"
Men are not indifferent. Answer me this: Are you reckless? There is one heart beat between you and eternity. Yet you hold back as I plead with you, as your old mother prays for you, as your wife is in agony about you, as the ministers are heartbroken over you - and tomorrow, tomorrow may be eternity. God pity you. I do not understand you. Why do you not come to Jesus?
No man in all this world is satisfied without God. You are not. Tonight as I close my appeal to say to every man in this building: In God's name, why don't you turn? Why don't you turn. Drifting, drifting, drifting, out into the sea of Eternity! And I stand lifting you warning cry: Why don't you turn? Tell me why. The very atmosphere of this place seems filled with God. It may be that God is giving some of you your last call. The door is open and it may shut again. Turn now. Why will you die?
You know the old story. I happen to know the real truth about it, for a friend of mine was in a way associated with it. On the Harlem railroad a man kept the bridge. It was an old-fashioned drawbridge that turned with man power. You remember how he got a message to keep the bridge shut because a special train was coming. However, just as the order came he heard the whistle of a little tugboat, and saw that he only needed to throw the bridge a little to let the tug boat through with her flagstaff. After he had let the tug through he turned to throw the bridge back and something was out of order. He bent to his task, pulling and pushing. The sweat came in great drops from his brow. An agonizing cry rose from his heart. The special came down the track and through the open bridge, and scores of people were killed. The keeper of the drawbridge was a man under fifty, and in the night his hair turned as white as snow. My friend went to where they kept him until he died, and the man walked up and down in his little padded cell like a caged tiger, by day and by night, rarely sleeping. One thing he kept saying over and over again: "Oh, if I only had. If I only had. If I only had." When he became exhausted he would fall on his cot, only to rise again and say: "Oh, if I only had."
Tonight the door is wide open and people are praying and God is waiting. It would be an awful thing to go out into Eternity saying: "If I only had." Tonight I plead with you. I think God has sent me to some of you to give you another call. These meetings are going on because God in His mercy is flinging wide the door once more. Come in. Come in. You fathers here, you can never expect your boys to go in unless you go yourself. If my mother had not been a sweet, consistent Christian, dying at thirty-four, I wonder where I should have been. You young men, you boys and girls, everybody come in!
~Wilbur Chapman~
(The End)
Are You Regenerate? # 8
Are You Regenerate? # 8
And more than once in the very same Epistle when these marks are mentioned, the Apostle tells us that he who has not this or that mark, is "not of God." I ask the reader to observe all this.
Now what shall we say to these things? What they can say who hold that Regeneration is only an admission to outward Church privileges, I am sure I do not know. For myself I say boldly, I can only come to one conclusion. That conclusion is, that those people only are regenerate who have these six marks about them, and that all men and women who have not these marks, are not regenerate, are not born again. And I firmly believe that this is the conclusion to which the Apostle wished us to come.
Reader, have you any of these marks? I know not what your opinions may be on this much-disputed subject of Regeneration. I know not which side you may rank yourself. But one for all I warn you, if you find nothing in yourself answering to the marks I have been speaking of, you have reason indeed to be afraid. Without these marks it is vain to fancy you are Scripturally regenerate. The witness of the Apostle John is clear and express, that you are not. There must be a certain family likeness between God and His children. Without it you are none of His. There must be some visible evidence of the Spirit being within you, as plain as the stamp upon gold and silver, however small. Without this evidence you are only boasting of a false faith. Show me your faith without your works, said the Apostle James, when he wrote against those who are content with a dead faith. Show me your Regeneration without its fruits, is an argument that ought to be pressed home on many a conscience in the present day.
Reader, if you have NOT these marks, awake to a sense of your danger. Arise from your sleep of indifference and unconcern. Know the immense peril of hell and eternal misery in which you stand. Begin to use diligently every means by which God is ordinarily pleased to give grace to men's hearts, when they have not received it in their youth. Be diligent in hearing the Gospel preached. Be diligent in reading the Bible. Be diligent, above all, in prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ for the gift of the Holy Spirit.
If you take this course, I have every hope for you. None ever ought the Lord Jesus Christ in simplicity and sincerity - and sought in vain.
If, on the contrary, you refuse to take this course, and will continue as you are, I have little hope for you, and many fears. If the Bible is true, you are not yet born again. You will not use the most likely means to obtain this mighty blessing. What can I say but this, "the Lord have mercy upon your soul!"
Reader, if you HAVE these marks I have been speaking of, be advised, and strive every year to make them more clear and plain. Let your repentance be a growing habit - your faith an increasing faith - your holiness a progressive holiness - your victory over the world a more decided victory - your love to the brethren a more hearty love - your watchfulness over yourself a more jealous watchfulness. Take this advice, and you will never repent of it. This is the way to be useful and happy in your religion. This is the way to put to silence the opposition of the enemies of truth. Let others, if they will, have Regeneration on their tongues, and nowhere else. Let it be your care to have it shining forth in your life, and to feel it in your heart.
Reader, I commend what I have been saying to your serious consideration. I believe that I have told you nothing but what is God's truth. You live in a day of gross darkness on the subject of Regeneration. Thousands are darkening God's counsel by confounding baptism and Regeneration. Beware of this. Keep the two subjects separate in your mind. Get clear views about Regeneration first of all, and then you are not likely to fall into mistakes about baptism. And when you have got clear views hold them fast - and never let them go!
~J. C. Ryle~
(The End)
And more than once in the very same Epistle when these marks are mentioned, the Apostle tells us that he who has not this or that mark, is "not of God." I ask the reader to observe all this.
Now what shall we say to these things? What they can say who hold that Regeneration is only an admission to outward Church privileges, I am sure I do not know. For myself I say boldly, I can only come to one conclusion. That conclusion is, that those people only are regenerate who have these six marks about them, and that all men and women who have not these marks, are not regenerate, are not born again. And I firmly believe that this is the conclusion to which the Apostle wished us to come.
Reader, have you any of these marks? I know not what your opinions may be on this much-disputed subject of Regeneration. I know not which side you may rank yourself. But one for all I warn you, if you find nothing in yourself answering to the marks I have been speaking of, you have reason indeed to be afraid. Without these marks it is vain to fancy you are Scripturally regenerate. The witness of the Apostle John is clear and express, that you are not. There must be a certain family likeness between God and His children. Without it you are none of His. There must be some visible evidence of the Spirit being within you, as plain as the stamp upon gold and silver, however small. Without this evidence you are only boasting of a false faith. Show me your faith without your works, said the Apostle James, when he wrote against those who are content with a dead faith. Show me your Regeneration without its fruits, is an argument that ought to be pressed home on many a conscience in the present day.
Reader, if you have NOT these marks, awake to a sense of your danger. Arise from your sleep of indifference and unconcern. Know the immense peril of hell and eternal misery in which you stand. Begin to use diligently every means by which God is ordinarily pleased to give grace to men's hearts, when they have not received it in their youth. Be diligent in hearing the Gospel preached. Be diligent in reading the Bible. Be diligent, above all, in prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ for the gift of the Holy Spirit.
If you take this course, I have every hope for you. None ever ought the Lord Jesus Christ in simplicity and sincerity - and sought in vain.
If, on the contrary, you refuse to take this course, and will continue as you are, I have little hope for you, and many fears. If the Bible is true, you are not yet born again. You will not use the most likely means to obtain this mighty blessing. What can I say but this, "the Lord have mercy upon your soul!"
Reader, if you HAVE these marks I have been speaking of, be advised, and strive every year to make them more clear and plain. Let your repentance be a growing habit - your faith an increasing faith - your holiness a progressive holiness - your victory over the world a more decided victory - your love to the brethren a more hearty love - your watchfulness over yourself a more jealous watchfulness. Take this advice, and you will never repent of it. This is the way to be useful and happy in your religion. This is the way to put to silence the opposition of the enemies of truth. Let others, if they will, have Regeneration on their tongues, and nowhere else. Let it be your care to have it shining forth in your life, and to feel it in your heart.
Reader, I commend what I have been saying to your serious consideration. I believe that I have told you nothing but what is God's truth. You live in a day of gross darkness on the subject of Regeneration. Thousands are darkening God's counsel by confounding baptism and Regeneration. Beware of this. Keep the two subjects separate in your mind. Get clear views about Regeneration first of all, and then you are not likely to fall into mistakes about baptism. And when you have got clear views hold them fast - and never let them go!
~J. C. Ryle~
(The End)
Saturday, January 5, 2019
Eternity # 1
Eternity # 1
My text this evening is one word. Ever since I have been a minister I have asked God to help me say two words and say them properly. It is said that George Whitefield used to say "Oh!" in such a fashion that his hearers were convicted of sin and some of them would cry out for mercy. The first word that I would like to say properly is "Lost." I have never yet spoken it as it ought to be uttered. I have tried my best and failed. If I could say it as the Son of God appreciated it when, fainting beneath the weight of the Cross, He staggered up Calvary Hill, I would not need to preach. To me it is the most striking word in the English language. The other word I have asked God to help me say is the word of my text. It is written in Isaiah 57:17. It is the word "ETERNITY."
A thousand years from tonight we shall be somewhere. Ten thousand years from tonight. Increase the multiple and you only increase the truth. How can a man speak a word that takes ages of time and all beyond it. ETERNITY! The old cobbler sat day after day on his little bench, hammering away at the shoes, and before him was an old-fashioned clock. After a while he thought that the pendulum of the clock was speaking to him and he heard it say as it swung one way, - Eternity, and when it went the other way, - Where? And the old clock became a preacher and he heard it speaking like this: "Eternity, where? Eternity, where?" The question is a solemn one. ETERNITY, where?
The word becomes all the greater when I add to it a part of the verse in which the text is found. "The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity." What a subject for thought is here. I speak of this One and they tell me that He is omnipresent, that is, everywhere. I speak again of Him and they say that He is omnipotent, that is, all-powerful. I talk of Him again and they tell me that He is omniscient, that is, all-knowing. We have come in contact with great minds. This is the greatest. We have been influenced by great personalities. This is an infinite personality. When I put these words together, the statement of my text is startling. "One that inhabiteth eternity." He is infinite. He is eternal. He is unchangeable. Eternity is the place of His abode.
Answer me this question; Where will you spend eternity? Nobody can answer it but you. If I could answer it for you, God knows I would. God has placed the power of choice and determination in our hands. God may love, and Jesus may die, and the Spirit may plead, but you alone can settle the question of eternity. Answer me this: Where will you spend eternity?
I was preaching in Lincoln, Nebraska, when a professor of mathematics stepped up behind me and said: "Eternity begins where computation ends." I said: "Professor, what does that mean?" "It means this," he said, "That when the man with the greatest mind the world has known thinks his way out and out and out into the future, and his mind fails because it can go no further, that is the beginning of eternity." There is no end. Sometimes men try to measure the depth of dark caverns, but the plummet is not long enough. So they measure the depth like this: They take a stopwatch in one hand and place a rock in the other, and note the time when the rock drops from their fingers, and listen as it strikes the bottom, noting the time it has taken to fall. If you know the weight of the rock and the time of falling, you can measure with some degree of accuracy the depth of the darkness. They tell me that sometimes they let a stone fall and there comes back no answer from below. Tonight I stand on the edge of the precipice of time, and I cry up into the light and into the darkness: "How long art thou, Eternity?" I get the answer from this Book: "The peace of righteousness is everlasting. The doom of the wicked is without end."
Where will you spend it? I have no apology to make this evening for asking you to think about Eternity when there are so many problems in time. I have no apology for asking you to think about the future when on all sides of us there is the cry of the needy, burdens that must be lifted, and tears that must be wiped away. I cry out for this reason. A man is never fitted for time until he is prepared for eternity.
When my father slipped away into eternity, one of his friends gave me his pocketbook. I opened it and found inside a piece of poetry, stained on one side as if with tears, and pasted together on the other as if worn with much reading. Some of the verses I remember after all these years;
"How long sometimes a day appears,
And weeks, how long are they.
Months move as if the years
Would never pass away.
But days and weeks are passing by,
And soon must all be gone,
For day by day as moments fly,
Eternity comes on.
Days, months, and years must have an end,
Eternity has none.
Twill always have as long to spend,
As when at first begun."
Tell me this evening, where will you spend it? Here in this world you have crowded God out of you life. You have lost consideration of Him. You have built your home without Him. You are training your children without Him. Yet you were made for God. Nothing less than God can satisfy you. If I had a place on which to stand and could hurl into space a million worlds like ours, I could never fill space. When I open my Bible, I read in the Psalms: "If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there." Whether I climb up into the light or go down into the darkness, in the daytime, in the night time, I find God. Only God can fill space and only God can fill my life!
~J. Wilbur Chapman~
(continued with # 2)
My text this evening is one word. Ever since I have been a minister I have asked God to help me say two words and say them properly. It is said that George Whitefield used to say "Oh!" in such a fashion that his hearers were convicted of sin and some of them would cry out for mercy. The first word that I would like to say properly is "Lost." I have never yet spoken it as it ought to be uttered. I have tried my best and failed. If I could say it as the Son of God appreciated it when, fainting beneath the weight of the Cross, He staggered up Calvary Hill, I would not need to preach. To me it is the most striking word in the English language. The other word I have asked God to help me say is the word of my text. It is written in Isaiah 57:17. It is the word "ETERNITY."
A thousand years from tonight we shall be somewhere. Ten thousand years from tonight. Increase the multiple and you only increase the truth. How can a man speak a word that takes ages of time and all beyond it. ETERNITY! The old cobbler sat day after day on his little bench, hammering away at the shoes, and before him was an old-fashioned clock. After a while he thought that the pendulum of the clock was speaking to him and he heard it say as it swung one way, - Eternity, and when it went the other way, - Where? And the old clock became a preacher and he heard it speaking like this: "Eternity, where? Eternity, where?" The question is a solemn one. ETERNITY, where?
The word becomes all the greater when I add to it a part of the verse in which the text is found. "The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity." What a subject for thought is here. I speak of this One and they tell me that He is omnipresent, that is, everywhere. I speak again of Him and they say that He is omnipotent, that is, all-powerful. I talk of Him again and they tell me that He is omniscient, that is, all-knowing. We have come in contact with great minds. This is the greatest. We have been influenced by great personalities. This is an infinite personality. When I put these words together, the statement of my text is startling. "One that inhabiteth eternity." He is infinite. He is eternal. He is unchangeable. Eternity is the place of His abode.
Answer me this question; Where will you spend eternity? Nobody can answer it but you. If I could answer it for you, God knows I would. God has placed the power of choice and determination in our hands. God may love, and Jesus may die, and the Spirit may plead, but you alone can settle the question of eternity. Answer me this: Where will you spend eternity?
I was preaching in Lincoln, Nebraska, when a professor of mathematics stepped up behind me and said: "Eternity begins where computation ends." I said: "Professor, what does that mean?" "It means this," he said, "That when the man with the greatest mind the world has known thinks his way out and out and out into the future, and his mind fails because it can go no further, that is the beginning of eternity." There is no end. Sometimes men try to measure the depth of dark caverns, but the plummet is not long enough. So they measure the depth like this: They take a stopwatch in one hand and place a rock in the other, and note the time when the rock drops from their fingers, and listen as it strikes the bottom, noting the time it has taken to fall. If you know the weight of the rock and the time of falling, you can measure with some degree of accuracy the depth of the darkness. They tell me that sometimes they let a stone fall and there comes back no answer from below. Tonight I stand on the edge of the precipice of time, and I cry up into the light and into the darkness: "How long art thou, Eternity?" I get the answer from this Book: "The peace of righteousness is everlasting. The doom of the wicked is without end."
Where will you spend it? I have no apology to make this evening for asking you to think about Eternity when there are so many problems in time. I have no apology for asking you to think about the future when on all sides of us there is the cry of the needy, burdens that must be lifted, and tears that must be wiped away. I cry out for this reason. A man is never fitted for time until he is prepared for eternity.
When my father slipped away into eternity, one of his friends gave me his pocketbook. I opened it and found inside a piece of poetry, stained on one side as if with tears, and pasted together on the other as if worn with much reading. Some of the verses I remember after all these years;
"How long sometimes a day appears,
And weeks, how long are they.
Months move as if the years
Would never pass away.
But days and weeks are passing by,
And soon must all be gone,
For day by day as moments fly,
Eternity comes on.
Days, months, and years must have an end,
Eternity has none.
Twill always have as long to spend,
As when at first begun."
Tell me this evening, where will you spend it? Here in this world you have crowded God out of you life. You have lost consideration of Him. You have built your home without Him. You are training your children without Him. Yet you were made for God. Nothing less than God can satisfy you. If I had a place on which to stand and could hurl into space a million worlds like ours, I could never fill space. When I open my Bible, I read in the Psalms: "If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there." Whether I climb up into the light or go down into the darkness, in the daytime, in the night time, I find God. Only God can fill space and only God can fill my life!
~J. Wilbur Chapman~
(continued with # 2)
Are You Regenerate? # 7
Are You Regenerate? # 7
Reader, I place this mark also before you. What would the Apostle say about you? Are you born of God?
4. Fourthly. John says, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." (1 John 3:14).
A Regenerate man has a special LOVE for all true disciples of Christ. Like His Father in heaven, he loves all men with a genuine general love - but he has a special love for those who are of one mind with himself. Like his Lord and Saviour, he loves the worst of sinners, and could weep over them - but he has a peculiar love for those who are believers. He is never so much at home as when he is in their company. He is never so happy as when he is among the saints and the excellent of the earth. Others may value learning, or cleverness, or agreeableness, or riches, or rank - in the society they choose. The Regenerate man values grace. Those who have most grace, and are most like Christ, are those he loves most. He feels that they are members of the same family with himself, his brethren, his sisters, children of the same Father. He feels that they are fellow- soldiers fighting under the same captain, warring against the same enemy. He feels that they are his fellow-travelers, journeying along the same road, tried by the same difficulties, and soon about to rest with him in the same eternal home. He understands them, and they understand him. He and them may be very different in many ways. But what does it matter? They are Jesus Christ's people. They are his Father's sons and daughters. Then he cannot help loving them.
Reader, I place this mark also before you. What would the Apostle say about you? Are you born of God?
5. Fifthly. John says, "Whoever is born of God overcomes the world" (1 John 5:4).
A Regenerate man does not make the WORLD'S opinion his rule of right and wrong. He goes against the stream of the world's ways, notions, and customs. "What will men say?" is no longer a turning point with him. He overcomes the love of the world. He finds no pleasure in things which most around him call happiness. He cannot enjoy their enjoyments - they weary him; they appear to him vain, unprofitable, and unworthy of an immortal being. He overcomes the fear of the world. He is content to do many things which all around him think unnecessary, to say the least. They find fault with him - it does not move him. They ridicule him - he does not give way. He loves the praise of God more than the praise of man. He fears offending Him more than giving offence to man. He has counted the cost. He has taken his stand. It is a small thing with him now whether he is blamed or praised. His eye is upon Him who is invisible. He is resolved to follow Jesus wherever He goes. It may be necessary in this following to come out from the world and be separate. The Regenerate man will not shrink from doing so. Tell him that he is unlike other people, that his views are not the views of society generally, and that he is making himself singular and peculiar - you will not shake him. He is no longer the servant of fashion and custom. To please the world is quite a secondary consideration with him. His first aim is to please God.
Reader, I place this mark also before you. What would the Apostle say about you? Are you born of God?
6. Sixthly. John says, "He who was born of God keeps himself" (1 John 5:18).
A Regenerate man is very careful of his own soul. He endeavors not only to keep clear of sin - but also to keep clear of everything which may lead to it. He is careful about the company he keeps. He feels that evil communications corrupt the heart, and that evil is far more catching than good, just as disease is more infectious than health. He is careful about the employment of his time - his chief desire about it is to spend it profitably. He is careful about the books he reads - he fears getting his mind poisoned by mischievous writings. He is careful about the friendships he forms - it is not enough for him that people are kind,k and amiable, and good-natured - all this is very well - but will they do good to his soul? He is careful over his own daily habits and behavior - he tries to recollect that his own heart is deceitful, and that the world is full of wickedness, that the devil is always laboring to do him harm, and therefore he would sincerely be always on his guard. He desires to live like a soldier in an enemy's country, to wear his armor continually, and to be prepared for temptation. He finds by experience that his soul is ever among enemies, and he studies to be a watchful, humble, prayerful man.
Read, I place this mark also before you. What would the Apostle say of you? Are you born again?
Such are the six great marks of Regeneration, which God has given for our learning. Let everyone who has gone so far with me, read them over with attention, and lay them to heart. I believe they were written with the view to settle the great question of the present day, and intended to prevent disputes. Once more then, I ask the reader to mark and consider them.
I know there is a vast difference in the depth and distinctness of these marks among those who are Regenerate. In some people they are faint, dim, feeble, and hardly to be discerned. In others they are bold, sharp, clear, plain, and unmistakable, so that he who runs may read them. It seldom happens that all are equally manifest in one and the same soul. All this I am quite ready to allow.
But still, after every allowance, here we find boldly painted the six marks of being born of God. Here are certain positive things laid down by John, as parts of the Regenerate man's character, as plainly and distinctly as the features of a man's face. Here is an inspired Apostle writing one of the last general Epistles to the Church of Christ, telling us that a man born of God - does not commit sin; believes that Jesus is the Christ; does righteousness; loves the brethren; overcomes the world; and keeps himself.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 8)
Reader, I place this mark also before you. What would the Apostle say about you? Are you born of God?
4. Fourthly. John says, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." (1 John 3:14).
A Regenerate man has a special LOVE for all true disciples of Christ. Like His Father in heaven, he loves all men with a genuine general love - but he has a special love for those who are of one mind with himself. Like his Lord and Saviour, he loves the worst of sinners, and could weep over them - but he has a peculiar love for those who are believers. He is never so much at home as when he is in their company. He is never so happy as when he is among the saints and the excellent of the earth. Others may value learning, or cleverness, or agreeableness, or riches, or rank - in the society they choose. The Regenerate man values grace. Those who have most grace, and are most like Christ, are those he loves most. He feels that they are members of the same family with himself, his brethren, his sisters, children of the same Father. He feels that they are fellow- soldiers fighting under the same captain, warring against the same enemy. He feels that they are his fellow-travelers, journeying along the same road, tried by the same difficulties, and soon about to rest with him in the same eternal home. He understands them, and they understand him. He and them may be very different in many ways. But what does it matter? They are Jesus Christ's people. They are his Father's sons and daughters. Then he cannot help loving them.
Reader, I place this mark also before you. What would the Apostle say about you? Are you born of God?
5. Fifthly. John says, "Whoever is born of God overcomes the world" (1 John 5:4).
A Regenerate man does not make the WORLD'S opinion his rule of right and wrong. He goes against the stream of the world's ways, notions, and customs. "What will men say?" is no longer a turning point with him. He overcomes the love of the world. He finds no pleasure in things which most around him call happiness. He cannot enjoy their enjoyments - they weary him; they appear to him vain, unprofitable, and unworthy of an immortal being. He overcomes the fear of the world. He is content to do many things which all around him think unnecessary, to say the least. They find fault with him - it does not move him. They ridicule him - he does not give way. He loves the praise of God more than the praise of man. He fears offending Him more than giving offence to man. He has counted the cost. He has taken his stand. It is a small thing with him now whether he is blamed or praised. His eye is upon Him who is invisible. He is resolved to follow Jesus wherever He goes. It may be necessary in this following to come out from the world and be separate. The Regenerate man will not shrink from doing so. Tell him that he is unlike other people, that his views are not the views of society generally, and that he is making himself singular and peculiar - you will not shake him. He is no longer the servant of fashion and custom. To please the world is quite a secondary consideration with him. His first aim is to please God.
Reader, I place this mark also before you. What would the Apostle say about you? Are you born of God?
6. Sixthly. John says, "He who was born of God keeps himself" (1 John 5:18).
A Regenerate man is very careful of his own soul. He endeavors not only to keep clear of sin - but also to keep clear of everything which may lead to it. He is careful about the company he keeps. He feels that evil communications corrupt the heart, and that evil is far more catching than good, just as disease is more infectious than health. He is careful about the employment of his time - his chief desire about it is to spend it profitably. He is careful about the books he reads - he fears getting his mind poisoned by mischievous writings. He is careful about the friendships he forms - it is not enough for him that people are kind,k and amiable, and good-natured - all this is very well - but will they do good to his soul? He is careful over his own daily habits and behavior - he tries to recollect that his own heart is deceitful, and that the world is full of wickedness, that the devil is always laboring to do him harm, and therefore he would sincerely be always on his guard. He desires to live like a soldier in an enemy's country, to wear his armor continually, and to be prepared for temptation. He finds by experience that his soul is ever among enemies, and he studies to be a watchful, humble, prayerful man.
Read, I place this mark also before you. What would the Apostle say of you? Are you born again?
Such are the six great marks of Regeneration, which God has given for our learning. Let everyone who has gone so far with me, read them over with attention, and lay them to heart. I believe they were written with the view to settle the great question of the present day, and intended to prevent disputes. Once more then, I ask the reader to mark and consider them.
I know there is a vast difference in the depth and distinctness of these marks among those who are Regenerate. In some people they are faint, dim, feeble, and hardly to be discerned. In others they are bold, sharp, clear, plain, and unmistakable, so that he who runs may read them. It seldom happens that all are equally manifest in one and the same soul. All this I am quite ready to allow.
But still, after every allowance, here we find boldly painted the six marks of being born of God. Here are certain positive things laid down by John, as parts of the Regenerate man's character, as plainly and distinctly as the features of a man's face. Here is an inspired Apostle writing one of the last general Epistles to the Church of Christ, telling us that a man born of God - does not commit sin; believes that Jesus is the Christ; does righteousness; loves the brethren; overcomes the world; and keeps himself.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 8)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)