Salvation Is Within Reach of Everyone, Those Who Do Not Get It Do Not Want It.

(Excerpt - Sermon On Righteousness #9)

 

"Death reigned," it "passed upon all men." The twelfth and eighteenth verses tell us what this death is.

 

Rom 5:12  Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned

Rom 5:18  Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 

 

Why did it pass? Because that "all have sinned." "Judgement came upon all!" What for? What to? Condemnation. We are familiar with death; we see people being placed in their graves every day. But is that the death referred to? Good men die, with only two exceptions, all the good men that have ever lived upon the earth have died. Do they die under condemnation? No, certainly not. Do they die because they are sinners? No, if they were sinners, they were not good men. There has been no man in this world upon whom the death sentence has not passed, for there never was a man in this world that was not a sinner, and if he became a good man so that he walked with God as Enoch did, it was by faith.

 

If we say that the death which comes to all men--good and bad, old and young alike--is the carrying out of that judgment which "came upon all men to condemnation," then we take the position that there is no hope for anyone who has died. For there is no such thing as probation after death and therefore the man who dies in sin can never be accounted righteous. If it is said that the good do not die in sin, but only because of sins previously committed, the justice of God is impugned, and His imputed righteousness denied.

 

For when God declares His righteousness upon the one who believes, that man stands as clear as though he had never sinned, and cannot be punished as a sinner, unless he denies the faith. Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life." John 5:24.

 

When Adam was placed in the garden of Eden, the Lord told him, "in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." That does not mean "dying thou shalt die," as the marginal reading has it. That expression is neither Hebrew nor English. It means just what it says, that in the day that Adam ate of the fruit of the true of knowledge of good and evil, in that day he died. In the very day that Adam ate of the fruit, he fell, and the death sentence was passed upon him, and he was a dead man. Sentence was not executed at that moment, and for that matter we know that Adam was a good man and that the sentence never was executed upon him. Christ died for him. But he was in the same condition, after he had eaten of the fruit of the tree that Pharaoh was in after the first-born of all the Egyptians had been killed, when he arose by night and said, "We be all dead men."

 

When sentence has been passed upon a murderer, he is to all intents and purposes a dead man. But it was more than that in the case of Adam. He was dead, and the Son of God was to make him alive. It was only a matter of time till he should be blotted out of existence. But Christ comes in to give man a probation and to lift him up. All that Christ has to give to man is summed up in that one word--life.

 

Everything is comprised in that. This fact shows that without Him men have no life. Said Christ to the unbelieving Jews, "Ye will not come to me that ye might have life." Probably they replied, "we do not need to come, because we have life already."

 

In Ezekiel 13:22 we read, "Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad, and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life." There is no life to the wicked. They have no life. They are dead.

 

Said Christ, "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."

 

Christ came to give life to the dead. He gives life only to those who conscientiously lay hold of that life, who bring His life into their lives, so that it takes the place of their forfeited lives. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life. He is dead.

 

So Adam died, and because of that, every man born into the world is a sinner, and the sentence of death is passed upon him. Judgment has passed upon all men to condemnation, and there is not a man in this world but has been under the condemnation of death. The only way that he can get free from that condemnation and that death is through Christ, who died for him and who, in His own body, bore our sins upon the cross. He bore the penalty of the law, and suffered the condemnation of the law for us, not for Himself, for He was sinless.

 

"As by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin . . . even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life."

 

What is the free gift? It is the free gift by grace and it appertaineth unto many. The work of Adam plunged man into sin; the work of Christ brings men out of sin. One man's single offense plunged many into many offenses, but the one man's obedience gathers the many offenses of many men and brings them out from beneath the condemnation of those offenses.

Then the free gift is the righteousness of Christ. How do we get the righteousness of Christ? We cannot separate the righteousness of Christ from Christ Himself. Therefore in order for men to get the righteousness of Christ, they must have the life of Christ.

 

So the free gift comes upon all men who are justified by the life of Christ. Justification is life. It is the life of Christ. "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, even so by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous." These are simple and positive statements. No good can come to man by questioning them. He only reaps barrenness to his soul. Let us accept them and believe them.

 

"The free gift came upon all men to justification of life." Are all men going to be justified? All men might if they would, but says Christ, "Ye will not come to me that ye might have life." All are dead in trespasses and sins. The grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared unto all men. It comes right within the reach of all men, and those who do not get it are those who do not want it.

 

(To Be Continued)

 

1891 General Conference Sermons- Study #9 A.T. Jones

Joyful In Tribulation.

 

(Excerpt - Sermon On Righteousness #9)

 

Rom 5:10  For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 

Rom 5:11  And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. 

Rom 5:12  Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: 

Rom 5:13  (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 

Rom 5:14  Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. 

Rom 5:15  But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. 

Rom 5:16  And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. 

Rom 5:17  For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) 

Rom 5:18  Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 

Rom 5:19  For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. 

Rom 5:20  Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: 

Rom 5:21  That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. 

 

"For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." Romans 5:10, 11.

 

The eleventh verse states one of the fruits that must follow from a knowledge that we are "saved by his life." When men have a well-grounded assurance that they are saved by the life of Jesus Christ, when they realize it is so till it becomes a part of their very being, they will joy in God through Jesus Christ their Lord. There can be nothing but joy in the heart of an individual when he knows that he is saved by the life of Christ. That is the secret of joying in tribulation.

 

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."

 

This verse contains a partially stated proposition. You will notice that commencing with the thirteenth verse and continuing down to the end of the seventeenth, there is a parenthesis. Then in the eighteenth verse, the proposition is taken up again and completed. The first part of the eighteenth verse is merely an equivalent to the first part of the twelfth; it is the same truth expressed in other words--"Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation." Then the closing portion of the verse completed the proposition: "Even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life."

 

We can notice but briefly the intervening verses. They contain rich truths, but the time allotted for this subject is so limited that our remarks must be confined to the major points of the chapter.

 

In the fourteenth verse we have reference to the "reign of death." What is the reign of death? What was this passage of death upon all men? The apostle says that "death reigned from Adam to Moses." He does not mean by this that it did not reign at any other time and that it does not reign at the present time. The part of the verse referring to Adam and Moses is a part of a great argument, which has its starting point back in chapter four. It is a part of his argument on Abraham.

 

The argument in a nutshell is, that the entering in of the law did not in any way interfere with the promise to Abraham. In Romans 4:13, 14 we are told that the promise "that he should be heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect." In these verses the apostle is proving in a practical manner that the law does not enter into man's justification at all; that justification is solely by faith and not by works. Why is it that the law does not enter into the justification of man? "Because the law worketh wrath."

 

If Abraham had been left to be justified by the works of the law, there would have been nothing to be placed to his account but wrath, for that is all that the law can work. But on the other hand, when he is not justified by the law, which could only be the means of imputing wrath to him and is justified by faith, then there is life placed to his account. And life is what is wanted, not wrath. Life is what all men desire, not wrath. Whoever seeks to be justified by his works will reap only wrath. Abraham will receive the inheritance only by the virtue of the promise and he will receive his righteousness only by the faith that he had.

 

Some think that there are two ways of being saved, because the Lord gave the law at Sinai and death had reigned till that time, so of course that means that the law brought life. It is true that the Lord gave the law at Sinai, but the law was in the world long before its giving at Sinai. Abraham had the law, and through the righteousness of faith he was able to keep that law. So the entering in of the law at Sinai did not militate against the promise of God to Abraham. There was no different phase of the plan of salvation introduced at Mount Sinai or at the time of the Exodus. There was no more law after that time than there was before it. Abraham kept the law. If there had not been any law there, Abraham could never have been justified, but he kept the law by his faith. Death reigned through sin before the time of Moses, but righteousness was imputed unto life. This shows that the law was there already, although they did not have it in that written, open form, that they had it afterwards.

 

In regard to the reign of death, (Rom 5:14  Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.)  I am persuaded that we lose much of the good and the encouragement that there is in this fifth chapter (of Romans) simply by the misapplying of these words--"death reigned," and also the expression "death passed upon all men, for that all had sinned."

 

Why did death pass upon all men?

 

Because that all had sinned! By one man sin came into the world.

 

There are many who will stop at this point and philosophize and question as to how this could be and try to figure out for themselves the justice of it.

 

They will query why it is that we are here in this sinful condition without having had any choice or say in the matter ourselves.

 

Now we know that there was one man in the beginning, and he fell. We are his children, and it is impossible for us to be born in any higher condition than he was.

 

Some will shut themselves out of eternal life because they cannot figure that thing out to a nicety and see the justice of it.

 

The finite mind of man cannot do this, so it is better for him to leave it alone and devote himself to seeking for the proffered salvation. That is the important point for all to consider. We know that we are in a sinful condition, and that this sinful condition is a lost condition. Seeing then that we are in a lost condition, is it not best for us to devote our energies to seeking to attain to that state whereby we may be in a saved condition.

 

What would you think of a man drowning in the ocean who, when someone throws him a rope, looks at it and then says, "I know that I am drowning and that the only hope I have lies in my getting hold of that rope, but I will not take hold of it unless I know that it has really been my own fault that I fell into the water. If it was my own fault, then I will take it, because I am the only one who is to blame for my being in this condition. But if, on the other hand, someone pushed me into the water and I could not help myself, then I will have nothing to do with that rope." Such a man would be considered devoid of common sense. Then, acknowledging that we are sinners and in a lost condition, let us take hold of the salvation that is offered to us.

 

To be continued…

 

1891 General Conference Sermons- Study #9 A.T. Jones

Unspeakable Gift.

 Excerpt-  Romans 5

 

Rom_5:7  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

 

"For scarcely for a righteous man will one die." The word in the original signifying "righteous," is a different word from the one which is rendered "good." The word righteous here means a man who is strictly honest and upright, but having nothing peculiarly lovable about him. Scarcely for such an one will anyone die. But for a "good" man, one who is kind and benevolent, who would give all he had to feed the poor and clothe the naked, for a man of this class some would even dare to die. This is the highest pitch to which human love attains. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13.

 

But note the love of God. "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

 

We too often measure God and His love by ourselves and our love.

 

The Lord through David said: "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself." The unregenerate heart treats as it is treated, and judges God by itself, but God's love is altogether different from human love; He loves His enemies.

 

How wonderful and how matchless is the love of God and to how great an extent was that love shown by the death of His dear Son! What had the world done to merit goodness at the hand of God? It had joined hands with the enemies of God; nothing but punishment was deserved. Some say they cannot accept Christ because they are not worthy. People who have been professed Christians for years will deprive themselves of the riches of God's grace because they say, "I am not worthy." That is true. They are not worthy. None of us are worthy. But God commended His love to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Why did He die? To make us worthy; to make us complete in Him.

 

The trouble with those who say that they are not worthy is that they do not feel half unworthy enough. If they felt "without strength," then the power of Christ could avail them. The whole secret of justification by faith and life and peace in Christ lies in believing the Bible. It is one thing to say we believe the Bible and another thing to take every word in it as if it had been spoken by the mouth of God to us individually.

 

In 1 Timothy 1:15 Paul says: "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."

 

That is exactly what He came for--to save sinners. "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Oh, that men would realize that they are without strength!

 

When they reach that point, then they can have the strength of Christ. That is the strength that is worth something; it is worth everything.

 

It is a great thing to believe that Christ died for the ungodly. Sometimes we feel almost discouraged, the heavens seem like brass over our heads, and everything we do or say seems to come back in our faces as if it were worth nothing. We think our prayers do not ascend higher than our heads. What will you do at such a time? You must thank God. "Thank Him for what? I have no blessing; I don't feel that I am His child at all; what will I thank Him for?" Thank Him that Christ died for the ungodly. If it does not mean much to you the first time you repeat the words, repeat them again. Then light will soon come in. You feel that you are one of the ungodly; then the promise is yours that Christ has died for you. You are there before Him on your knees because you are a sinner, so you can have the benefit of His death. What is the benefit of that death? "Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Roman 5:10

 

Many act and talk as if Christ was dead and irrecoverably dead. Yes, He died, but He rose again and lives forever more. Christ is not in Joseph's new tomb. We have a risen Saviour. What does the death of Christ do for us? Reconciles us to God. It is the death of Christ that brings us to God. He died, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. Now mark! It is the death of Christ that brings us to God; what is it that keeps us there? It is the life of Christ. We are saved by His life. Now hold these words in your minds--"Being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."

 

Why was the life of Christ given? "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Then Christ gave His life that we might have life. Where is that life? what is that life? and where can we get it? In John 1:4 we read: "In Him was life and the life was the light of men." He alone has life and He gives that life to as many as will accept it. John 17:2.

 

Joh 17:2  As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. 

 

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. 

 

Then Christ has the life and He is the only One who has it, and He is willing to give it to us. Now what is that life? Verse 3: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." Has a person who knows Christ eternal life? That is what the word of God says.

 

Again He says in John 3:36: "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life."

 

These are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we know that we have this life? This is an important question. "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him."

 

Says one, "We know that we will get eternal life by and by." Yes, that is true, but it is better than that; we get it now. This is not a mere theory; it is the word of God. Let me illustrate: Here are two men--brothers--to all appearances they are alike. But one is a Christian and the other is not. Now the one that is a Christian, although there is nothing in his external appearance to indicate it, has a life that the other has not. He has passed from death--the state in which the other one is--to life. He has something that the other has not got, and that something is eternal life. The words, "No murderer hath eternal life abiding in him," would mean nothing if nobody else had eternal life abiding in him.

 

1 John 5:10: "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself; he that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son." God cannot lie, and so when we say that the words of God are not so, we make liars of ourselves. Now, according to this scripture, we make God a liar, if we believe not the record that God gave of His Son. What, then, must be believe in order to clear ourselves of that charge--of not believing this record and thus making God a liar? The next verse explains it. "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son."

 

Some people are afraid that this idea of justification by faith and eternal life will get men away from the commandments. But nobody but the one who is justified by faith--who has Christ's life--does keep the commandments, for God says that we are justified by faith, and if we say we are not, then we make God a liar--we bear false witness against Him, and we break the commandment. In the verse just quoted we are told what we are to believe in order to be cleared from the charge of making God a liar. We are to believe that God has given to us eternal life in Christ.

 

As long as we have the Son of God we have eternal life. By our faith in the word of God we bring Christ into our hearts. Is He a dead Christ? No. He lives and cannot be separated from His life. Then when we get Christ into our hearts, we get life there. He brings that life into our hearts when He comes. How thankful we ought to be to God for this.

 

When Jesus went to Bethany, He said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life." We have already read about passing from death unto life. How is that done? Only by a resurrection. In Christ we have a resurrection to a new life. Note the following: Paul prays that he may know Him and the "power of His resurrection." What is the power of that resurrection? In Ephesians 2:4, 5, 6, and 7 we read, "But God who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us [made us alive] together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)."

 

Notice, He hath done this, and He "hath raised us up and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." We were dead, we are quickened, and we are raised up to sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. We must have, and we can have the life of Christ today, for when He comes, He will change our vile bodies by the same power by which He has changed our hearts. The heart must be changed now. It cannot be changed except by the life of Christ coming in and abiding in it. But when Christ is in the heart, we can live the life of Christ, and then when He comes, the glory will be revealed. He was Christ when He was here upon earth, although He did not have a retinue of angels and glory visible about Him. He was Christ when He was the man of sorrows. Then when He ascended, the glory was revealed. So with us. Christ must dwell in our hearts now, and when He comes and changes these bodies, then the glory will be revealed.

 

Christ gave His life for us. John 10:10, 11.

 

Joh 10:10  The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. 

Joh 10:11  I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. 

 

He gave all there was of Him. What was that? His life. He gave it for our sins.

 

Galatians 1:3, 4.

 

Gal 1:3  Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, 

Gal 1:4  Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father

 

We shall be saved by His life. It is the life of Christ that was Jesus Christ of Nazareth. No one could take life away from Christ. The wicked had no power to kill Him. He laid His life down. If He had not chosen to do that, no one ever could have taken it from Him.

 

God raised Him up, "Having loosed the pains of death; because it was not possible that He should be holden of it." It was not possible that death should hold Christ. He had power in His life that defied death. ?????

 

I live by faith on the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Yes, we are crucified with Christ; but is Christ dead? No. He has risen again; then we have risen with Him. But we are in the flesh. That is true; but in the flesh there may be the divine life that was in Christ when He was in the flesh.

 

We cannot understand these things. They are the mystery of the gospel. The mystery of Christ manifested in the flesh. Everything that is done for man by Heaven is a mystery.

 

Once there was a poor woman, who was afflicted with an issue of blood. In a dense crowd she touched the hem of the Master's garment. Said Christ, "I perceive that virtue is gone out of me." Now that woman had a real disease and when she touched the hem of His garment, she was really healed of it. What healed her? There was a real power which came out from Jesus and went into her and healed her.

 

These miracles were written for us. Why were they written? "That ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name."

 

The same life and power which went out from Christ and healed the body of that woman went out to heal her soul; Jesus is ready and willing to do the same today.

 

These things were put upon record that we might know that the same Divine power and life that went into the bodies of men to heal them goes into the soul of those who believe. We can take that same life into our souls to withstand the temptations of the enemy.

 

There is only one life that can resist sin and that is a sinless life, and the only sinless life is the life of the Son of God.

 

How many of us have been striving to get ourselves sinless. It has been a losing game. But we can have the life of Christ and that is a sinless life. Thanks be unto God for this unspeakable gift.  

 

2Co_9:15  Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.

 

1891 General Conference Sermons- Study #8 A.T. Jones.

Without Strength.

 Excerpt-

 

'One motive only should actuate the minds of those who study the word of God and that is that they may by this study be drawn nearer to God.

 

God is no respecter of persons. He will give His Holy Spirit to any and to all who ask for it. He is just as willing to make the truths of the Bible plain to one as to another.

 

Peace and light may come into your hearts from what is spoken from the desk; but if you do not know the word for yourselves, that peace and light will not stay with you. The Holy Spirit spoke the words of the Bible, and it is only by the aid of the Holy Spirit that it can be understood. Any man who will submit himself to the Holy Spirit may understand the Bible for himself.

 

There is but one true help to the Bible--the Spirit of God.

 

If you get your ideas about Christ and His work from the writings of other men, you get it second hand at best. Draw your light straight from the Bible. Learn the Bible from the Bible itself. When our minds are illuminated by the Holy Spirit, although the word will appear simple, at the same time there will be heights and depths to it that will fill us with amazement. All eternity will be spent in studying the plan of salvation and the longer we study the more we will find to study.

 

Last evening our study brought us to the close of the fifth verse of the fifth chapter. We will commence this evening at the sixth.

 

"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."

 

Rom_5:6  For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

 

Mark the words "without strength." There was a fixed time in the history of the world when Christ was offered on the cross of Calvary. But that was not the only time when Christ availed for the ungodly. Who are the ungodly? They are those who are "without strength." The human family has been without strength from the fall, and they are without strength today. When men find themselves without strength, Christ is to be lifted up, and He says that He will draw all men unto Him. So we can look to Jesus as a crucified and risen Saviour today, just as much as could the disciples.

 

We sometimes think that we look back to Christ and that the patriarchs and prophets looked forward to Him. Is it so? We look up to Christ and so did they.

 

We look to Christ a loving Redeemer by our side, and so did they. Said Moses to the children of Israel: "It is not in heaven, that thou shouldst say, who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? . . . But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest do it."

 

The Word, which was Christ the Redeemer, was nigh unto them, and He is nigh unto us.

 

They all drank of that spiritual Rock that went with them, and that Rock was Christ.

 

The Israelites did not need to look forward to Christ. He was nigh unto them. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He is and ever has been a present Saviour to all who made Him so. He was a present Saviour to Abel. "By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain." "By faith" in what? In the Son of God, for there was no one else for him to have faith in. So it was that Enoch walked with Christ by faith. He did not look away beyond to some future time for the help of the Redeemer. Christ was to him a present Saviour, and they walked along together.

 

So in every age of the world, when men have felt themselves to be without strength, then Christ has been a Saviour to them. Notice how plain are the words: "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."

 

Abel was without strength, and Christ died for him. Enoch was without strength, and Christ died for him. Abraham and Sarah were without strength, and Christ died for them. His death was a reality to all of these. How remarkably powerful was Christ to Abraham! That Christ, the Messiah not yet come and who was to come through Abraham, that very Messiah was so very powerful that faith in Him brought forth the son to Abraham and Sarah in order that He might come through that son. At every period of the earth's history, Christ has been a present Saviour to those who were "without strength."

 

To be continued… 

 

1891 General Conference Sermons- Study #8 A.T. Jones.

Hope and Rejoicing.

 

 

(Excerpt) Romans 5 -  A Chapter of Hope and Rejoicing.

 

Chapter five contains a partial enumeration of the blessings which are fruits of such a faith as that portrayed in chapter four. It shows the Christian development of the life of anyone who has the faith of Abraham.

 

Two words form the keynote of the chapter--much more.

 

If you have the glory, the patience, or the Christian experience spoken of in this, or any other chapter, know that God has them in store and is willing to give much more, for He "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think."

 

Eph_3:20  Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us

 

"Therefore being justified by faith," that is, being made conformable to the law by faith, "we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

 

Rom_5:1  Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ

 

The only way that man can be made conformable to the law and live free from condemnation is by having faith in the promises of God.

 

In Christ there is no unrighteousness, therefore there is nothing but righteousness. By believing on Christ, the Christian has the righteousness of Christ.

 

But does not James say that there must be works or the faith is of no avail? It is true that faith is made perfect by works. James 2:22.

 

Jas 2:22  Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? 

 

But it is by faith and faith alone that men are justified. The very text which speaks of Abraham's being justified by faith, states that the works were only the outgrowth of underlying faith and that by this work the scripture was fulfilled which says: "Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness." Works are the outgrowth of faith.

 

"It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure."

 

We give ourselves into the hands of Christ. He comes and takes up His abode with us. We are as clay in the hands of the potter, but it is Christ who does all the good works and to Him belongs all the glory.

 

"We have peace with God."

 

What is peace? It is not a feeling, but a fact.

 

Many think that they must experience a "certain feeling" which they will know is the "peace of God." But they have never had the peace of God, and therefore cannot know what kind of feeling it ought to be.

 

Satan might give a certain happy feeling, and if the Christian had only the feeling to go by, he would be deceived. The Lord does not deal in feelings but in facts. Peace is the opposite of war, strife, emulation. We are either at peace with God or else at war. If at war, it is because we are carrying on rebellion.

 

How do men fight God? By following sinful practices. Anyone knowingly indulging in one sinful practice is warring against God.

 

God is a God of peace. Christ left His peace with His followers. "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts." Between God and His dear Son in heaven there is a "counsel of peace." They counsel for the peace of man. There is only one condition on which man can have that peace--unconditional surrender, surrender all to God and then there is peace in the heart, no matter what the feeling may be.

 

"Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them."

 

"O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! Then had thy peace been as a river and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea."

 

What rich comfort in these words! Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday and today and forever." So His peace is likened to the continual flowing of the river and the never-ceasing roll of the ocean wave; therefore it matters not what the feeling is for if all sins have been confessed God is faithful and just to forgive them and we are at peace with Him.

 

The condition of peace is the condition of being justified by faith.

 

"By whom [Christ] also we have access by faith into this grace [unmerited forgiveness and favor] in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Righteousness can be wrought in men day by day by the same power by which Isaac was born of parents who were practically dead. When people once gain this experience, the next thing, they will be constrained to rejoice in the hope of the coming of the Lord.

 

How often do we look forward to the coming of the Lord with fear? If we do not rejoice in the Lord in the present life, we have no hope that we will rejoice in Him in a life to come. Why should Christians "rejoice in hope of the glory of God?" Because they are at peace with Him. *omitted*  are bidden "when these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." We praise Him that He is coming soon; it is one of the most glorious and cheering assurances we have.

 

We live in the present, not in the future. Read 1 Peter 1:5-9.

 

1Pe 1:5  Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 

1Pe 1:6  Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 

1Pe 1:7  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 

1Pe 1:8  Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 

1Pe 1:9  Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. 

 

Salvation belongs to us today just as much as it will when in the kingdom of God. No one but ourselves can deprive us of it. Says Peter, "Receiving [present time] the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." Our present salvation is our only hope of a future salvation. "Kept by the power of God" is the expression used by Peter, and it denotes precisely the same condition--"being justified by faith"--in the fifth chapter of Romans.

 

The same power that will make men immortal in the life to come, justifies them--makes them conformable to the law--by being in harmony with it, every day. Says Paul in the letter to the Philippians, chapter three, and verse twenty-one: "Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself."

 

In Ephesians 3:16, Paul in an inspired prayer prays that they might be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, according to "the riches of His glory." The grace of God is equal to the glory of God. God's throne is a throne of glory and the grace wherein we stand is backed by the glory of God.

 

"We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience."

 

Some say that tribulation worketh impatience. This is not true. If a man is not justified by faith, tribulation will develop the impatience that is in him. How is it, then, that tribulation worketh patience? Let these texts answer: "Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you." 1 Peter 5:7. "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee." Psalm 55:22. "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28.

He takes the heavy loads away. What is that burden? Anything that worries or vexes us. It matters not whether it be a small thing--a little trial--or a great one. Cast it on the Lord. We rejoice in tribulation because we have Christ with us, and we cast all the burden on Him. He is able to bear them. He has already borne them for all the world, so we cannot add to His burden.

 

How do we get rid of the burdens? Give them to Christ and then say, "He has them." And He has them whether you feel any different or not. Then you will experience the truth of the words, "I will give you rest." It is rest even though the physical pain still racks the body. For Christ bears that tribulation, and you are lifted up above all pain.

 

How did the martyrs go to the rack and the stake with songs of joy on their lips? Was that mere bravado? No, Christ bore their burden and in Him they had peace. Out of a full heart they sang their praise to Him. Thus they were happy and joyous and scarcely noticed the pain while the flames crept around them. We will have to "pass through great tribulation." It may be the lash on the naked flesh or it may be the thumb screw. Human nature shrinks from such torture. In Christ we can bear it. Gain an experience in Him now and in the trying time He will not forsake you. He can bear that great burden as well as a small one.

 

Christ will be ours then as well as now, and the life we live will be in Him. No man in this world will be able to stand in that time unless he has previously learned the lesson of faith. Now is the time, while the lesson may be learned under easy circumstances. Great as will be the tribulation of that time we will pass through it with rejoicing. That rejoicing must be learned now.

 

"Let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect, wanting nothing." Patience shows us to be perfect men.

 

"Patience worketh experience." It is a Christian experience that is referred to.

 

"Experience" signifies that men who have it have been proved and tried. They have laid hold upon God and proved Him.

 

Experience, or the fact that we daily prove God, develops hope--hope in God.

 

If God is proven every day, then every day there is hope. That is, we have reason to expect the things we desire. We have present salvation, therefore we glory in the hope of an eternal salvation. This is indeed a chapter of hope and rejoicing.  

 

1891 General Conference Sermons- Study #7 A.T. Jones.

Do You Set Yourself Up As A Little God?

 

Pursuit of God - A.W. Tozer

_Meekness and Rest_

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.--Matt. 5:5

A fairly accurate description of the human race might be furnished one unacquainted with it by taking the Beatitudes, turning them wrong side out and saying, "Here is your human race." For the exact opposite of the virtues in the Beatitudes are the very qualities which distinguish human life and conduct.

In the world of men we find nothing approaching the virtues of which Jesus spoke in the opening words of the famous Sermon on the Mount. Instead of poverty of spirit we find the rankest kind of pride; instead of mourners we find pleasure seekers; instead of meekness, arrogance; instead of hunger after righteousness we hear men saying, "I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing"; instead of mercy we find cruelty; instead of purity of heart, corrupt imaginings; instead of peacemakers we find men quarrelsome and resentful; instead of rejoicing in mistreatment we find them fighting back with every weapon at their command.

Of this kind of moral stuff civilized society is composed. The atmosphere is charged with it; we breathe it with every breath and drink it with our mother's milk. Culture and education refine these things slightly but leave them basically untouched. A whole world of literature has been created to justify this kind of life as the only normal one.

And this is the more to be wondered at seeing that these are the evils which make life the bitter struggle it is for all of us. All our heartaches and a great many of our physical ills spring directly out of our sins. Pride, arrogance, resentfulness, evil imaginings, malice, greed: these are the sources of more human pain than all the diseases that ever afflicted mortal flesh.

Into a world like this the sound of Jesus' words comes wonderful and strange, a visitation from above. It is well that He spoke, for no one else could have done it as well; and it is good that we listen. His words are the essence of truth. He is not offering an opinion; Jesus never uttered opinions. He never guessed; He knew, and He knows. His words are not as Solomon's were, the sum of sound wisdom or the results of keen observation. He spoke out of the fulness of His Godhead, and His words are very Truth itself. He is the only one who could say "blessed" with complete authority, for He is the Blessed One come from the world above to confer blessedness upon mankind. And His words were supported by deeds mightier than any performed on this earth by any other man. It is wisdom for us to listen.

As was often so with Jesus, He used this word "meek" in a brief crisp sentence, and not till some time later did He go on to explain it.

In the same book of Matthew He tells us more about it and applies it to our lives. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Here we have two things standing in contrast to each other, a burden and a rest. The burden is not a local one, peculiar to those first hearers, but one which is borne by the whole human race. It consists not of political oppression or poverty or hard work. It is far deeper than that. It is felt by the rich as well as the poor for it is something from which wealth and idleness can never deliver us.

The burden borne by mankind is a heavy and a crushing thing. The word Jesus used means a load carried or toil borne to the point of exhaustion. Rest is simply release from that burden. It is not something we do, it is what comes to us when we cease to do. His own meekness, that is the rest.

Let us examine our burden. It is altogether an interior one. It attacks the heart and the mind and reaches the body only from within.

First, there is the burden of _pride_.

The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed.

Think for yourself whether much of your sorrow has not arisen from someone speaking slightingly of you. As long as you set yourself up as a little god to which you must be loyal there will be those who will delight to offer affront to your idol. How then can you hope to have inward peace? The heart's fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let the mind have rest. Continue this fight through the years and the burden will become intolerable. Yet the sons of earth are carrying this burden continually, challenging every word spoken against them, cringing under every criticism, smarting under each fancied slight, tossing sleepless if another is preferred before them.

Such a burden as this is not necessary to bear. Jesus calls us to His rest, and meekness is His method. The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort. He develops toward himself a kindly sense of humor and learns to say, "Oh, so you have been overlooked? They have placed someone else before you? They have whispered that you are pretty small stuff after all? And now you feel hurt because the world is saying about you the very things you have been saying about yourself? Only yesterday you were telling God that you were nothing, a mere worm of the dust. Where is your consistency? Come on, humble yourself, and cease to care what men think."

The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God's estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God has declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God of more importance than angels. In himself, nothing; in God, everything. That is his motto. He knows well that the world will never see him as God sees him and he has stopped caring. He rests perfectly content to allow God to place His own values. He will be patient to wait for the day when everything will get its own price tag and real worth will come into its own. Then the righteous shall shine forth in the Kingdom of their Father. He is willing to wait for that day.

In the meantime he will have attained a place of soul rest. As he walks on in meekness he will be happy to let God defend him. The old struggle to defend himself is over. He has found the peace which meekness brings.

Then also he will get deliverance from the burden of _pretense_. By this I mean not hypocrisy, but the common human desire to put the best foot forward and hide from the world our real inward poverty. For sin has played many evil tricks upon us, and one has been the infusing into us a false sense of shame. There is hardly a man or woman who dares to be just what he or she is without doctoring up the impression. The fear of being found out gnaws like rodents within their hearts. The man of culture is haunted by the fear that he will some day come upon a man more cultured than himself. The learned man fears to meet a man more learned than he. The rich man sweats under the fear that his clothes or his car or his house will sometime be made to look cheap by comparison with those of another rich man. So-called "society" runs by a motivation not higher than this, and the poorer classes on their level are little better.

Let no one smile this off. These burdens are real, and little by little they kill the victims of this evil and unnatural way of life. And the psychology created by years of this kind of thing makes true meekness seem as unreal as a dream, as aloof as a star. To all the victims of the gnawing disease Jesus says, "Ye must become as little children." For little children do not compare; they receive direct enjoyment from what they have without relating it to something else or someone else. Only as they get older and sin begins to stir within their hearts do jealousy and envy appear. Then they are unable to enjoy what they have if someone else has something larger or better. At that early age does the galling burden come down upon their tender souls, and it never leaves them till Jesus sets them free.

Another source of burden is _artificiality_. I am sure that most people live in secret fear that some day they will be careless and by chance an enemy or friend will be allowed to peep into their poor empty souls. So they are never relaxed. Bright people are tense and alert in fear that they may be trapped into saying something common or stupid. Traveled people are afraid that they may meet some Marco Polo who is able to describe some remote place where they have never been.

This unnatural condition is part of our sad heritage of sin, but in our day it is aggravated by our whole way of life. Advertising is largely based upon this habit of pretense. "Courses" are offered in this or that field of human learning frankly appealing to the victim's desire to shine at a party. Books are sold, clothes and cosmetics are peddled, by playing continually upon this desire to appear what we are not. Artificiality is one curse that will drop away the moment we kneel at Jesus' feet and surrender ourselves to His meekness. Then we will not care what people think of us so long as God is pleased. Then _what we are_ will be everything; what we appear will take its place far down the scale of interest for us. Apart from sin we have nothing of which to be ashamed. Only an evil desire to shine makes us want to appear other than we are.

The heart of the world is breaking under this load of pride and pretense. There is no release from our burden apart from the meekness of Christ. Good keen reasoning may help slightly, but so strong is this vice that if we push it down one place it will come up somewhere else. To men and women everywhere Jesus says, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest." The rest He offers is the rest of meekness, the blessed relief which comes when we accept ourselves for what we are and cease to pretend. It will take some courage at first, but the needed grace will come as we learn that we are sharing this new and easy yoke with the strong Son of God Himself. He calls it "my yoke," and He walks at one end while we walk at the other.

_Lord, make me childlike. Deliver me from the urge to compete with another for place or prestige or position. I would be simple and artless as a little child. Deliver me from pose and pretense. Forgive me for thinking of myself. Help me to forget myself and find my true peace in beholding Thee. That Thou mayest answer this prayer I humble myself before Thee. Lay upon me Thy easy yoke of self-forgetfulness that through it I may find rest. Amen._

Believe In Christ's Righteousness.

 

(Excerpt)

 

In the fourth chapter of the book of Romans we have faith in a concrete form. The narrative of the lives of Abraham and Sarai in connection with the birth of Isaac furnish a practical example of justification by faith.

Abraham was not justified by works, but he believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Abraham received the seal of circumcision. Why? To cause him to believe? No, but because he had believed. It was a seal of the righteousness which he had by believing. The promise to Abraham and to his seed was that he should be heir of the world. This promised inheritance was to be for an "everlasting possession." Genesis 17:8.

 

Gen 17:8  And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. 

 

Therefore it was a covenant of righteousness, sealed by a seal of righteousness, and the inheritance was to be a righteous inheritance, which none but the righteous can gain. 2 Peter 3:13.

 

2Pe 3:13  Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 

 

How can God give us righteousness when we are so sinful? We cannot understand how nor do we need to inquire. It is just as great a miracle for God to make an unrighteous man righteous as it was for Him to create the world.

 

If a man calls a thing which is not as though it were, he tells a falsehood; but when God calls a thing which is not as though it were, the very fact of His calling it makes it so.

 

God not only makes our hearts righteous, when there is no righteousness there but He does more than that; He makes our hearts righteous, when there is nothing there but unrighteousness.

 

A man is just as much an infidel who does not believe that God can speak righteousness into his heart as a man who, by the theory of evolution, does away with the Mosaic record of creation. No limit can be put upon the power of God. If there were a huge mountain, which was to set itself up against the power of God, He could take nothing and break that mountain all to pieces.

 

"We brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise." We get to be the children of God in the same way as Isaac was born--by believing, as Abraham and Sarai believed. The promise is to him "that worketh not but believeth on Him, who justifieth the ungodly."

 

Rom_4:5  But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

 

There was much implied in the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. Through no other son could the promise of the inheritance come. Christ could not come into the world except through Isaac. Cut off Isaac and what hope of a Saviour? None. Abraham to all appearances would cut off all hope of his own salvation.

 

Wonderful is the faith here exhibited. Abraham believed that God could raise Isaac up again and yet, the very one (Christ) through whose power he believed Isaac would be raised up, had not come and could not come except through Isaac. Nevertheless God had promised and Abraham believed, although he was called upon to do that very thing which to human sight would cut off all hope of ever having the promise fulfilled.

The promise itself was immutable, and that immutable promise was confirmed by an immutable oath. Therefore God is under obligation to fulfill His promises to all who claim them. the very throne and existence of God are pledged to this, and not to do it would be for God to deny Himself.

By and by, God will come and say, "Gather My saints together unto Me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice."

 

Psa_50:5  Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.

 

Christ is the sacrifice here referred to. It is through Him we come. He is the surety of the covenant.

 

The promise to Abraham depended upon one thing--his having a son. Twenty-five years elapsed from the time the promise was made until it was fulfilled. "Abraham staggered not at the promise of God," but Sarai did, and Abraham hearkened unto the voice of Sarai." She undertook to help the Lord to carry out His plan. But Hagar was a slave, and her child could be nothing but a slave, born after the flesh.

 

The seed promised Abraham were to be free men, not slaves, therefore nothing was gained by this plan of Sarai's. The time came when Sarai realized that the only thing for her to do was to believe that God was able to carry out His promise without her help. Then, "through faith" she "received strength to conceive seed." The birth of Isaac was a miracle.

 

From a human standpoint it was utterly impossible for Abraham and Sarai to become the parents of a child. She conceived by the power of God.

 

Abraham and Sarai did nothing to gain the promise, except to believe, and yet the child of the promise was their own child.

 

So with Christians. Nothing can be done to gain the righteousness of Christ, save only to believe the promises. It is wrong to put forth efforts to secure the righteousness of Christ. We are told to believe the promises. God has promised to make us righteous, and the only way to obtain that righteousness is to believe that God is able to input it.

 

When men are content to believe God and submit themselves to Him, there is power in His promises to work out their righteousness for them, without any power of their own.

 

How are men made righteous, or partakers of the divine nature? "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakes of the divine nature."

 

2Pe_1:4  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

 

The power lies in the promise of God. How can we make the promises effectual to us? By believing them. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Confess your sins, believe that God forgives them as He has promised, and the promise is yours, your sins are forgiven.

 

The promises of God may be likened to "promissory notes." How many may have these notes? "Whosoever will." They are good for a certain amount of blessing. That amount can never be drawn in full, because God is able "to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think." Men take a promissory note to the bank and get the gold on it. Christians take the promises of God to Him and cash them for a blessing.  

 

1891 General Conference Sermons- Study #6 A.T. Jones.