What Shall I Do With Jesus? # 3
Poor Pilate! The blood of Jesus has been on you for nineteen hundred years in hell. It will be on you through an unending eternity. You had your chance that day in front of the gang in Jerusalem, but you were willing to let them nail Him to the Cross rather than stand by the side of Jesus Christ and His truth.
"What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?"
He didn't have the courage of his convictions. He was convinced that Jesus was right. Oh, if Pilate had bared his back and said, "This Man is on the level; you can take me and crucify me, but you can't touch one hair of His head" - he would have taken his stand in the same company with Joseph of Arimathaea and other famous men. We would have been glad to name our children after him. But tonight we speak his name with ignominy and repulsion. He had the chance. He was a miserable, white-livered coward.
Now, when old Pilate heard that Herod was in town he was glad to get rid of Jesus. So he shoved Him over to Herod. Herod thought that Jesus was sort of a sleight-of-hand performer - legerdemain, Chantaugua entertainer and had a bunch of high rollers; so he asked Jesus to come up and perform a few miracles just to entertain the crowd. Jesus answered the old fox never a word.
So they secured Him and sent Him back to old Pilate. Herod had heard John the Baptist preach. John had said: "it isn't right for you to have your brother Philip's wife." Herod wanted Jesus and his brother Philip's wife, too. but he could not have both. So he turned down Jesus and kept his brother Philip's wife, which was against the law.
Is William Jennings Bryan a fool? Is he a believer in Jesus Christ as the Son of God? What are you going to do with the Christ of these Christian men?
Was the late William McKinley a fool? When the assassin's bullet struck him down, at Buffalo, fondly and reverently did he pray that he would be spared. When they gave him the anesthetic and the doctors bent over him to catch what he might have been his last words, he was muttering the Lord's prayer. We smiled, dried our tears, shook hands and forgot our political differences. Then the relapse came and we were informed that he was growing worse. They sent for his wife. He looked up and said, "It's God's will. His way, not ours, be done." McKinley started to repeat, "Nearer, My God to Thee, Nearer to Thee," and the lamp of life flickered and went out forever.
Down the streets of Buffalo went the funeral procession and the band played, "Nearer, My God to Thee." The railroad track from Buffalo to Washington was lined with people who stood with bowed, uncovered heads and tear-stained cheeks as they sang, "Nearer, My God to Thee."
I journeyed to Canton that I might be present at the funeral. Five hours I stood on the street corner, opposite the Stark Courthouse where his body was to lie in state. The booming cannon told us that the funeral train had arrived. Down the funeral procession came, and bands, with muffled drum, played, "Nearer, My God to Thee."
The hearse stopped opposite to where I stood, and the detachment of sailors from the battleship Indiana and soldiers from the regular army drew out the coffin and carried it into the courthouse where it was to lie in state.
Up dashed a carriage. Out leaned that giant of the west, Theodore Roosevelt. By his side was Elihu Root. By his side was Doctor Ritchie. I stood and watched Admiral Croinshield and Admiral Farquhar. Then I saw General Otis, just returned from the Philippines, and General Gillespie, both Roman Catholics, but both earnest, devout Christians who believed in Jesus Christ. By their side walked the finest specimen of manhood I have ever looked upon - Lieutenant General Nelson A. Miles.
Up the steps hobbled my friend, General David B. Henderson, of Dubuque, Iowa, then speaker of the House of Representatives. By his side was William B. Ellison. I stood and gazed upon men from the North and men from the South; Democrats and Republicans of all classes. They they were given the privilege to walk through, and I was among the first two hundred to go through. When I looked at the dead president's pale, upturned face, my eyes were blinded with tears and I groped my way out of the north door.
I stood there bathed in the perfect sunlight of a perfect September day, and as I stood there I said to myself: "Hail to God! I stand with the best men of this nation when I stand beneath the Cross of Jesus Christ, the Son of God."
What are you to do with the Christ when from the north, the south, the east and the west the trumpet of Gabriel sounds and the unsaved dead come out of their graves to the last judgment?
~Billy Sunday~
(continued with # 4)
Saturday, February 23, 2019
What Shall I Do With Jesus? # 2
What Shall I Do With Jesus? # 2
Pilate was willing to let that gang nail Jesus Christ to the Cross in order to keep their friendship and hold his job. All over the land today there are people who are willing to do the same thing for a trifling reason. Pilate, my friends, asked himself: "What would the Jews say about it?"
Pilate should not have yielded to their clamor, but should have been willing to sacrifice his office and his life to avoid convicting Jesus Christ, an innocent Person. It was that Jewish hierarchy that threatened old Pilate as an officeholder.
Pilate was a stand-pat, free-lunch, pie-counter, pliable, plastic, lick-spittle, rat-hole, tin-horn, weasel-eyed, ward-heeling, grafting politician of his day, pure and simple. Old Pilate was a direct product of the political system of Rome. He was a typical machine politician. And there is no more low-down scoundrel on earth than a mere typical machine politician.
So, "What will the Jews say?"
Listen, "What will Caesar say?" (Caesar's word was law.)
Pilate says: "If Caesar at Rome hears that I have let Jesus go, and by that act admitted that I believe His claims are just, he won't stand for it; so off will come my head; I will surely lose my job. But if Caesar hears that I say this man Jesus is a fraud and that I let them put Him on the Cross, he will know that I am at my job, working for the interests of Rome. I will win Caesar's favor and keep my job.
Oh, he was willing to sacrifice Jesus Christ to please old Caesar and to please the gang that had no use for Jesus Christ. I despise a man like that!! But, hold on! I don't have to go back to old Pilate - I don't have to go out of this city to find people of the same low-down type as was old Pilate!
Pilate often heard of Jesus; no doubt he was prejudiced against Him, and was longing for the chance to pass sentence against Jesus. I have imagined the look of wonder that must have swept over the face of Pilate as Jesus was ushered into his presence. Pilate turned to Him and said: 'Art thou the Son of God?"
Jesus answered: "I am."
He was either the Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried; or He was a bastard, for He was born out of wedlock. He was either conceived by the Holy Spirit or He was an illegitimate offspring of a Jewish harlot.
Away with your damnable Unitarian theory that makes Jesus a bastard! My mother taught me that the Good Book didn't lie. And if Jesus Christ wasn't the Son of God, it does lie. My mother taught me that a good man didn't lie. And if Jesus Christ wasn't the Son of God, He was a liar, and all the teachings of the Bible are false. Just imagine what a hard time those high priests would have had, had there been a syndicate of newspapers playing upon the front page a three-column display headline about the villainy of that little crowd of religious bigots and crooked politicians who were intent on murdering Jesus Christ, the One who stood for the common people as no other man in history had stood and no other man in history will ever stand!
So Old Pilate called for a basin of water, walked out before the crowd, washed his hands and said: "I wash my hands of His blood. I find no fault in Him." If he had washed his old black heart at the same time, he would have been a clean man.
There has come from across the seas a book bearing the strange title, "Letters From Hell." The introduction was written by George McDonald. In that book Pilate is represented in the lost world bending over a stream of water. (I think the author must have gotten his wires crossed. A stream of water in hell would be the limit, according to my idea. That is just like the average fool novel writer anyway.) Pilate is represented bending over, dipping his hands in the water. Some one touches him on the shoulder and says: "Will they never be clean?" And with a shriek of agony that rang through the lost world he cried: "Oh, will they never be clean! No!"
~Billy Sunday~
(continued with # 3)
Pilate was willing to let that gang nail Jesus Christ to the Cross in order to keep their friendship and hold his job. All over the land today there are people who are willing to do the same thing for a trifling reason. Pilate, my friends, asked himself: "What would the Jews say about it?"
Pilate should not have yielded to their clamor, but should have been willing to sacrifice his office and his life to avoid convicting Jesus Christ, an innocent Person. It was that Jewish hierarchy that threatened old Pilate as an officeholder.
Pilate was a stand-pat, free-lunch, pie-counter, pliable, plastic, lick-spittle, rat-hole, tin-horn, weasel-eyed, ward-heeling, grafting politician of his day, pure and simple. Old Pilate was a direct product of the political system of Rome. He was a typical machine politician. And there is no more low-down scoundrel on earth than a mere typical machine politician.
So, "What will the Jews say?"
Listen, "What will Caesar say?" (Caesar's word was law.)
Pilate says: "If Caesar at Rome hears that I have let Jesus go, and by that act admitted that I believe His claims are just, he won't stand for it; so off will come my head; I will surely lose my job. But if Caesar hears that I say this man Jesus is a fraud and that I let them put Him on the Cross, he will know that I am at my job, working for the interests of Rome. I will win Caesar's favor and keep my job.
Oh, he was willing to sacrifice Jesus Christ to please old Caesar and to please the gang that had no use for Jesus Christ. I despise a man like that!! But, hold on! I don't have to go back to old Pilate - I don't have to go out of this city to find people of the same low-down type as was old Pilate!
Pilate often heard of Jesus; no doubt he was prejudiced against Him, and was longing for the chance to pass sentence against Jesus. I have imagined the look of wonder that must have swept over the face of Pilate as Jesus was ushered into his presence. Pilate turned to Him and said: 'Art thou the Son of God?"
Jesus answered: "I am."
He was either the Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried; or He was a bastard, for He was born out of wedlock. He was either conceived by the Holy Spirit or He was an illegitimate offspring of a Jewish harlot.
Away with your damnable Unitarian theory that makes Jesus a bastard! My mother taught me that the Good Book didn't lie. And if Jesus Christ wasn't the Son of God, it does lie. My mother taught me that a good man didn't lie. And if Jesus Christ wasn't the Son of God, He was a liar, and all the teachings of the Bible are false. Just imagine what a hard time those high priests would have had, had there been a syndicate of newspapers playing upon the front page a three-column display headline about the villainy of that little crowd of religious bigots and crooked politicians who were intent on murdering Jesus Christ, the One who stood for the common people as no other man in history had stood and no other man in history will ever stand!
So Old Pilate called for a basin of water, walked out before the crowd, washed his hands and said: "I wash my hands of His blood. I find no fault in Him." If he had washed his old black heart at the same time, he would have been a clean man.
There has come from across the seas a book bearing the strange title, "Letters From Hell." The introduction was written by George McDonald. In that book Pilate is represented in the lost world bending over a stream of water. (I think the author must have gotten his wires crossed. A stream of water in hell would be the limit, according to my idea. That is just like the average fool novel writer anyway.) Pilate is represented bending over, dipping his hands in the water. Some one touches him on the shoulder and says: "Will they never be clean?" And with a shriek of agony that rang through the lost world he cried: "Oh, will they never be clean! No!"
~Billy Sunday~
(continued with # 3)
Saturday, February 16, 2019
Payday Someday # 4
Payday Someday # 4
Looking at him then, she doubtless, as is the custom with women until this day, put her hand on his forehead to see if he had fever. He had fever without doubt! He was set on fire of hell, even as is a wicked tongue (James. 3:6). Then, in a voice of our day, "What's the matter with you, Big Boy?" But, in the words of the Bible: "Why is thy spirit so sad, that thou eatest no bread?" (1 Kings 21:5). Then, with his mouth full of grouches, with his heart stubborn in rebellion against the commandment of God, he told her - his every word full of mopish petulance...
"Because I spake unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, 'Give me thy vineyard for money, or else, if it pleases thee, I will give thee another vineyard for it: and he answered, 'I will not give thee my vineyard" (1 Kings 21:6).
Every word he said stung like a whip upon a naked back this wickedly unscrupulous woman who had never had any regard for the welfare of anyone who did not worship her god, Baal - who never had any conscientious regard for the rights of others, or for others who did not yield to her whimsical imperiousness.
Hear her derisive laugh as it rings out in the palace like the shrill cackle of a wild fowl that has returned to its nest and has found a serpent therein! With her tongue, sharp as a razor, she prods Ahab as an ox driver prods with sharp goad the ox which does not want to press his neck into the yoke, or as one whips with a rawhide a stubborn mule. With profuse and harsh laughter this old gay and gaudy guinea of satan derided this king of hers for a cowardly buffoon and sordid Jester. What hornet like sting in her sarcasm! What wolf mouth fierceness in her every reproach! What tiger fang cruelty in her expressed displeasure! What fury in the shrieking of her rebuke! What bitterness in the teasing taunts she hurled at him for his scrupulous timidity! Her bosom with anger was heaving! Her eyes were flashing with rage under the surge of hot anger that swept over her.
"Are you not the king of this country?" she chides bitingly, her sharp tongue like a butcher's blade. "Can you not command and have it done?" She scolds as a common village hag who has more noise than wisdom in her words. "Can you not seize and keep?" she cries with reproach. "I thought you told me you were king in these parts! And here you are crying like a baby and will not eat anything because you do not have courage to take a bit of land. You! Ha! Ha! Ha! You, king of Israel, allow yourself to be disobeyed and defied by a common clodhopper from the country. You are more courteous and considerate of him than you are of your queen! Shame on you! But you leave it to me! I will get the vineyard for you, and all that I require is that you ask no questions. Leave it to me, Ahab!"
And Jezebel, his wife, said unto him, "Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? arise and eat bread" and let thine heart be merry. I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth for Jezreelite" (1 Kings 21:7).
Ahab knew Jezebel well enough to know that she would do her best, or her worst, to keep her wicked promise. So, as a turtle that has been sluggish in the cold winter's mud begins to move when the spring sunshine warms the mud, Ahab crawled out of the slime of his sulks - somewhat as a snake arouses and uncoils from winter sleep. Then Jezebel doubtless tickled him under the chin with here bejeweled fingers or kissed him peckingly on the cheek with her lips screwed in a tight knot, and said, "There now! Smile! And eat something. I will get thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite."
Now, let us ask, who can so inspire a man to noble purposes as a noble woman? And who can so thoroughly degrade a man as a wife of unworthy tendencies? Back of the statement, "And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him" (1 Kings 21:20). is the statement explaining both the other statements: "Whom Jezebel his wife stirred up." She was the polluted reservoir from which the streams of his own iniquity found mighty increase. She was the poisonous pocket from which his cruel fangs fed. She was the sulphurous pit wherein the fires of his own iniquity found fuel for intense burning. She was the devil's grindstone which furnished sharpening for his weapons of wickedness.
Search the pages of the Bible all you will; study all you please. And you will find one truth that stands out above some other truths. What is that truth? The truth that the spiritual life of a nation, city, town, school, church, or home never rises any higher than the spiritual life of women. When women sag morally and spiritually, man sag morally and spiritually. When women slump morally and spiritually, men slip morally and spiritually. When women take the downward road men travel with them. When women are lame morally and spiritually, men limp morally and spiritually. The degeneracy of womanhood helps the decay of manhood.
Yes - we ask again - who can do degrade a man as a woman of wicked tendencies and purposes? Is not a woman without spiritual religion and love of God in her heart like a rainbow without color - like a strong poisoned well from which the thirsty drink - like a heater stove whose heat is infection - like kissing lips spread with deadly poison?
What a tragedy when any woman thinks more of paint than purity, of vulgarity than virtue, of pearls than principles, of adornment with righteous adoration, of hose and hats than holiness, of dress than duty, of mirrors than manners! What a tragedy when any woman sacrifices decency on the altar of degradation - visualizing the slimy, the tawdry, the tinseled!
~Robert G. Lee~
(continued with # 5)
Looking at him then, she doubtless, as is the custom with women until this day, put her hand on his forehead to see if he had fever. He had fever without doubt! He was set on fire of hell, even as is a wicked tongue (James. 3:6). Then, in a voice of our day, "What's the matter with you, Big Boy?" But, in the words of the Bible: "Why is thy spirit so sad, that thou eatest no bread?" (1 Kings 21:5). Then, with his mouth full of grouches, with his heart stubborn in rebellion against the commandment of God, he told her - his every word full of mopish petulance...
"Because I spake unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, 'Give me thy vineyard for money, or else, if it pleases thee, I will give thee another vineyard for it: and he answered, 'I will not give thee my vineyard" (1 Kings 21:6).
Every word he said stung like a whip upon a naked back this wickedly unscrupulous woman who had never had any regard for the welfare of anyone who did not worship her god, Baal - who never had any conscientious regard for the rights of others, or for others who did not yield to her whimsical imperiousness.
Hear her derisive laugh as it rings out in the palace like the shrill cackle of a wild fowl that has returned to its nest and has found a serpent therein! With her tongue, sharp as a razor, she prods Ahab as an ox driver prods with sharp goad the ox which does not want to press his neck into the yoke, or as one whips with a rawhide a stubborn mule. With profuse and harsh laughter this old gay and gaudy guinea of satan derided this king of hers for a cowardly buffoon and sordid Jester. What hornet like sting in her sarcasm! What wolf mouth fierceness in her every reproach! What tiger fang cruelty in her expressed displeasure! What fury in the shrieking of her rebuke! What bitterness in the teasing taunts she hurled at him for his scrupulous timidity! Her bosom with anger was heaving! Her eyes were flashing with rage under the surge of hot anger that swept over her.
"Are you not the king of this country?" she chides bitingly, her sharp tongue like a butcher's blade. "Can you not command and have it done?" She scolds as a common village hag who has more noise than wisdom in her words. "Can you not seize and keep?" she cries with reproach. "I thought you told me you were king in these parts! And here you are crying like a baby and will not eat anything because you do not have courage to take a bit of land. You! Ha! Ha! Ha! You, king of Israel, allow yourself to be disobeyed and defied by a common clodhopper from the country. You are more courteous and considerate of him than you are of your queen! Shame on you! But you leave it to me! I will get the vineyard for you, and all that I require is that you ask no questions. Leave it to me, Ahab!"
And Jezebel, his wife, said unto him, "Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? arise and eat bread" and let thine heart be merry. I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth for Jezreelite" (1 Kings 21:7).
Ahab knew Jezebel well enough to know that she would do her best, or her worst, to keep her wicked promise. So, as a turtle that has been sluggish in the cold winter's mud begins to move when the spring sunshine warms the mud, Ahab crawled out of the slime of his sulks - somewhat as a snake arouses and uncoils from winter sleep. Then Jezebel doubtless tickled him under the chin with here bejeweled fingers or kissed him peckingly on the cheek with her lips screwed in a tight knot, and said, "There now! Smile! And eat something. I will get thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite."
Now, let us ask, who can so inspire a man to noble purposes as a noble woman? And who can so thoroughly degrade a man as a wife of unworthy tendencies? Back of the statement, "And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him" (1 Kings 21:20). is the statement explaining both the other statements: "Whom Jezebel his wife stirred up." She was the polluted reservoir from which the streams of his own iniquity found mighty increase. She was the poisonous pocket from which his cruel fangs fed. She was the sulphurous pit wherein the fires of his own iniquity found fuel for intense burning. She was the devil's grindstone which furnished sharpening for his weapons of wickedness.
Search the pages of the Bible all you will; study all you please. And you will find one truth that stands out above some other truths. What is that truth? The truth that the spiritual life of a nation, city, town, school, church, or home never rises any higher than the spiritual life of women. When women sag morally and spiritually, man sag morally and spiritually. When women slump morally and spiritually, men slip morally and spiritually. When women take the downward road men travel with them. When women are lame morally and spiritually, men limp morally and spiritually. The degeneracy of womanhood helps the decay of manhood.
Yes - we ask again - who can do degrade a man as a woman of wicked tendencies and purposes? Is not a woman without spiritual religion and love of God in her heart like a rainbow without color - like a strong poisoned well from which the thirsty drink - like a heater stove whose heat is infection - like kissing lips spread with deadly poison?
What a tragedy when any woman thinks more of paint than purity, of vulgarity than virtue, of pearls than principles, of adornment with righteous adoration, of hose and hats than holiness, of dress than duty, of mirrors than manners! What a tragedy when any woman sacrifices decency on the altar of degradation - visualizing the slimy, the tawdry, the tinseled!
~Robert G. Lee~
(continued with # 5)
Don't Be Ashamed Of Jesus # 4
Don't Be Ashamed Of Jesus # 4
Ask philosophical minds why they are ashamed of Christ, and they will demand in counterquestions: "How do you expect us to accept a religion in which a God permits wars terrors and agony? How can we harmonize the existence of pain and evil with the Christian faith?" Some of you likewise refuse to acclaim Jesus your Redeemer because you think that the Lord has dealt too cruelly with you. A dear one has been snatched from your side, and in stubborn resentment you demand: "How can there be a God if I must suffer this way? How can there be a Saviour if I am plunged into this agony?" You have tried to settle these issues apart from the Word of God. If only you would realize that Jesus has the key and explanation of human suffering! Those who come to Him in faith know that each affliction is laid upon them, as the Lord's redeemed, by divine mercy instead of His anger, that trials which seem beyond analysis are the Almighty's way of purifying faith and strengthening trust.
Again, ask proud enemies of our faith why they are hostile to the Gospel, and they will sneer: "Well, hasn't Christianity been rejected by outstanding scientists? Isn't it true that all great thinkers have discarded the Bible? To both questions we answer with an emphatic "NO!" Not only have leaders in every branch of learning been humble followers of the Lord Jesus, but today, during the heyday of unbelief and atheism, recognized teachers and intellectual leaders have come out strongly for Christ. Listen to these testimonies by men on the faculties of great American universities: From the University of Wisconsin: "In the Bible we find...our Saviour, and eternal life through faith in Him!" From Ohio State University: "The Bible has shown me my sin with its terrifying consequences; but it has also brought me the direct comfort of the Saviour who died for me on Calvary!" From Michigan State College: "The Bible reveals Christ and His vicarious atonement for the sins of mankind!" From Johns Hopkins University: "I believe that...the Son of God Himself came down to earth and by the shedding of His blood on the Cross paid the infinite penalty of the guilt of the whole world!" From Temple University: "I have praised the Lord that as a physician He has given me the privilege of testifying to Christ's saving grace!" From the University of Illinois: "In Jesus Christ I have found my Saviour and Lord, my Helper along the way. Without Him life would be empty and worthless, the load of sin ... still separating me from God!"
Should you refuse to accept Christ? Many who attack the Bible have never studied His Word, and many who assail His Word are led by blind and willful ignorance. If you who place question marks behind the glorious truth of the Saviour's atonement would only stop locking the Holy Spirit out of your heart and take time to consider the many infallible proofs of His forgiving, sustaining love you, too, could write a glorious chapter in your life's story. Do not be troubled by the fact that men with headline names often attempt to discredit our Lord! And you too, will be able to say with earnest truth: "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ!"
May the Holy Spirit mercifully keep you from that terrifying denial! May He rather lead you (and I have prayed especially for those who once knew the Lord, but who followed the path of sin; for you who until this hour have neglected your soul and steadfastly turned from Christ), if necessary, through suffering, sorrow, and pain, but always from cross to crown! May He bring you, humble, repentant, yet trusting, joyful, to Calvary, where, your sins forgiven, your cares cast on Him, your hope strengthened by His unfailing promise, your faith exults: "Blessed Saviour, how could I be ashamed of Thee and Thy Gospel, the promise of my forgiveness, life, salvation? O Jesus, precious Lord, grant me constantly more of Thy love, as I give myself in soul and body, mind and spirit, to Thee now and forever!" For heaven is yours when Christ thus becomes your Saviour. God give you this unashamed, unhesitating, unending faith in the blessed Redeemer! Amen.
~Walter A. Maier!
(The End)
Ask philosophical minds why they are ashamed of Christ, and they will demand in counterquestions: "How do you expect us to accept a religion in which a God permits wars terrors and agony? How can we harmonize the existence of pain and evil with the Christian faith?" Some of you likewise refuse to acclaim Jesus your Redeemer because you think that the Lord has dealt too cruelly with you. A dear one has been snatched from your side, and in stubborn resentment you demand: "How can there be a God if I must suffer this way? How can there be a Saviour if I am plunged into this agony?" You have tried to settle these issues apart from the Word of God. If only you would realize that Jesus has the key and explanation of human suffering! Those who come to Him in faith know that each affliction is laid upon them, as the Lord's redeemed, by divine mercy instead of His anger, that trials which seem beyond analysis are the Almighty's way of purifying faith and strengthening trust.
Again, ask proud enemies of our faith why they are hostile to the Gospel, and they will sneer: "Well, hasn't Christianity been rejected by outstanding scientists? Isn't it true that all great thinkers have discarded the Bible? To both questions we answer with an emphatic "NO!" Not only have leaders in every branch of learning been humble followers of the Lord Jesus, but today, during the heyday of unbelief and atheism, recognized teachers and intellectual leaders have come out strongly for Christ. Listen to these testimonies by men on the faculties of great American universities: From the University of Wisconsin: "In the Bible we find...our Saviour, and eternal life through faith in Him!" From Ohio State University: "The Bible has shown me my sin with its terrifying consequences; but it has also brought me the direct comfort of the Saviour who died for me on Calvary!" From Michigan State College: "The Bible reveals Christ and His vicarious atonement for the sins of mankind!" From Johns Hopkins University: "I believe that...the Son of God Himself came down to earth and by the shedding of His blood on the Cross paid the infinite penalty of the guilt of the whole world!" From Temple University: "I have praised the Lord that as a physician He has given me the privilege of testifying to Christ's saving grace!" From the University of Illinois: "In Jesus Christ I have found my Saviour and Lord, my Helper along the way. Without Him life would be empty and worthless, the load of sin ... still separating me from God!"
Should you refuse to accept Christ? Many who attack the Bible have never studied His Word, and many who assail His Word are led by blind and willful ignorance. If you who place question marks behind the glorious truth of the Saviour's atonement would only stop locking the Holy Spirit out of your heart and take time to consider the many infallible proofs of His forgiving, sustaining love you, too, could write a glorious chapter in your life's story. Do not be troubled by the fact that men with headline names often attempt to discredit our Lord! And you too, will be able to say with earnest truth: "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ!"
May the Holy Spirit mercifully keep you from that terrifying denial! May He rather lead you (and I have prayed especially for those who once knew the Lord, but who followed the path of sin; for you who until this hour have neglected your soul and steadfastly turned from Christ), if necessary, through suffering, sorrow, and pain, but always from cross to crown! May He bring you, humble, repentant, yet trusting, joyful, to Calvary, where, your sins forgiven, your cares cast on Him, your hope strengthened by His unfailing promise, your faith exults: "Blessed Saviour, how could I be ashamed of Thee and Thy Gospel, the promise of my forgiveness, life, salvation? O Jesus, precious Lord, grant me constantly more of Thy love, as I give myself in soul and body, mind and spirit, to Thee now and forever!" For heaven is yours when Christ thus becomes your Saviour. God give you this unashamed, unhesitating, unending faith in the blessed Redeemer! Amen.
~Walter A. Maier!
(The End)
Saturday, February 9, 2019
Don't Be Ashamed Of Jesus # 3
Don't Be Ashamed Of Jesus # 3
2. You can approach Christ despite the multiplied misdeeds in your past life. You can come just as you are, unclean, impure, unworthy, to learn, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
3. Your redemption is free. You cannot buy your salvation, for Christ has paid everything. One drop of His precious blood can outbalance all your transgressions, for here is the unbreakable promise: "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son,cleanseth us from all sin."
4. To receive the full Gospel blessing you need only believe, only approach God as a poor, miserable sinner who accepts the Saviour's grace. Divine truth assures us, "By grace are ye saved, through faith."
5. Your forgiveness is unquestioned and positive. Our text calls the Gospel "the power of God" not of man. "Heaven itself" and earth shall pass away before this supreme pledge is violated.
These five theses present to you the most sacred and sublime love which even God Almighty can give. For your souls salvation I ask you to study their life-and-death certainty. Wherever you are, let me direct to your home one of the thousands of pastors who work together with me for this same glorious Gospel and who can help you declare in the fervor of sincere faith, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ!"
If We Have Reason To Be Ashamed Of His Gospel.
Now, with all the pardon and perfect peace Jesus can speak into sorrowing, aching hearts; with all the light His Gospel offers for life's darkest hours, should be not expect that every person on earth would accept His message as the highest good and the greatest blessing? Did you ever hear of anyone being ashamed of the friend who rescued him from death? Have you ever read of a nation which does not pay tribute to those who fought and fell in its defense? Why, then, with Christ's offering deliverance from death's grip,sin's slavery, hell's tyranny, do millions blasphemously reject Him? How does it happen that some theological seminaries in the United States have not one man on their faculties who believes in the inerrancy of the Scriptures or in Jesus' atoning death and life-giving resurrection?
How can we account for the fact that Christ is pushed aside in many modern churches which ban all hymns concerning the Cross and the Blood? Why do we sometimes behold, even in Gospel churches, lukewarmness and indifference toward the Saviour? Why does a nation as wealthy as ours rob God? (If our people gave only 10 percent of their income for religious purposes, the churches would have $4,000,000,000 annually for the extension of the Kingdom. Actually they receive only a fraction of that amount). Why is it that a country founded by Christian pioneers, settled by Christian colonists, developed by Christian frontiersmen, richly endowed as no other nation in any other part of the world or in any previous age, now has more unbelievers, more public enemies of Jesus, than ever before?
Ask the large group of those who, despite the appeals of this "Go to Church Sunday," have kept their distance from every place of worship, why they are ashamed of the Gospel, and they will answer, "Christianity has failed because it has not prevented this World War." Nothing could be more unfair than to cry out, "The churches have been tried and failed in this crisis." Rather should we admit that our age suffers its sorrows because it has failed to try Christianity. The postman recently brought a letter with one-cent postage due to a Duxbury, Massachusetts man, who refused to accept it and pay the penny. Back it went to the dead letter office, where it was found to contain $450.00. Does any one charge the United States postal system with failure when the fault lay entirely with the man who would not accept the letter? Why, then, blame Jesus for the war when multitudes within our boundaries spurn the free offer of His help and mention His name only in foul-mouthed profanity? Recently we read that the chaplain of the United States Senate died because a druggist had mistakenly compounded a prescription with fifteen times as much narcotic as the doctor ordered. Does any sound-minded person hold the doctor responsible for that pharmacist's mistake?
Is it fair, then, to charge the Gospel with failure in this world of war, when many, ordained to preach the whole Bible, offer an erroneous substitute, a destructive counterfeit? If Jesus' Gospel were universally accepted His teachings followed, there would have been no Second World War. But because men hate Christ and love sin; because selfishness, carnal ambition, avarice, lust, love of power, and worship of money make them trample the rights of their fellow men, the world has been turned into bloody shambles. Jesus pleads, "Love one another!" but willful unbelievers insist, "Hate one another!" Jesus gave the Golden Rule, but dictators lay down the rule of steel and blood and iron.
~Walter A. Maier~
(continued with # 4)
2. You can approach Christ despite the multiplied misdeeds in your past life. You can come just as you are, unclean, impure, unworthy, to learn, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
3. Your redemption is free. You cannot buy your salvation, for Christ has paid everything. One drop of His precious blood can outbalance all your transgressions, for here is the unbreakable promise: "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son,cleanseth us from all sin."
4. To receive the full Gospel blessing you need only believe, only approach God as a poor, miserable sinner who accepts the Saviour's grace. Divine truth assures us, "By grace are ye saved, through faith."
5. Your forgiveness is unquestioned and positive. Our text calls the Gospel "the power of God" not of man. "Heaven itself" and earth shall pass away before this supreme pledge is violated.
These five theses present to you the most sacred and sublime love which even God Almighty can give. For your souls salvation I ask you to study their life-and-death certainty. Wherever you are, let me direct to your home one of the thousands of pastors who work together with me for this same glorious Gospel and who can help you declare in the fervor of sincere faith, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ!"
If We Have Reason To Be Ashamed Of His Gospel.
Now, with all the pardon and perfect peace Jesus can speak into sorrowing, aching hearts; with all the light His Gospel offers for life's darkest hours, should be not expect that every person on earth would accept His message as the highest good and the greatest blessing? Did you ever hear of anyone being ashamed of the friend who rescued him from death? Have you ever read of a nation which does not pay tribute to those who fought and fell in its defense? Why, then, with Christ's offering deliverance from death's grip,sin's slavery, hell's tyranny, do millions blasphemously reject Him? How does it happen that some theological seminaries in the United States have not one man on their faculties who believes in the inerrancy of the Scriptures or in Jesus' atoning death and life-giving resurrection?
How can we account for the fact that Christ is pushed aside in many modern churches which ban all hymns concerning the Cross and the Blood? Why do we sometimes behold, even in Gospel churches, lukewarmness and indifference toward the Saviour? Why does a nation as wealthy as ours rob God? (If our people gave only 10 percent of their income for religious purposes, the churches would have $4,000,000,000 annually for the extension of the Kingdom. Actually they receive only a fraction of that amount). Why is it that a country founded by Christian pioneers, settled by Christian colonists, developed by Christian frontiersmen, richly endowed as no other nation in any other part of the world or in any previous age, now has more unbelievers, more public enemies of Jesus, than ever before?
Ask the large group of those who, despite the appeals of this "Go to Church Sunday," have kept their distance from every place of worship, why they are ashamed of the Gospel, and they will answer, "Christianity has failed because it has not prevented this World War." Nothing could be more unfair than to cry out, "The churches have been tried and failed in this crisis." Rather should we admit that our age suffers its sorrows because it has failed to try Christianity. The postman recently brought a letter with one-cent postage due to a Duxbury, Massachusetts man, who refused to accept it and pay the penny. Back it went to the dead letter office, where it was found to contain $450.00. Does any one charge the United States postal system with failure when the fault lay entirely with the man who would not accept the letter? Why, then, blame Jesus for the war when multitudes within our boundaries spurn the free offer of His help and mention His name only in foul-mouthed profanity? Recently we read that the chaplain of the United States Senate died because a druggist had mistakenly compounded a prescription with fifteen times as much narcotic as the doctor ordered. Does any sound-minded person hold the doctor responsible for that pharmacist's mistake?
Is it fair, then, to charge the Gospel with failure in this world of war, when many, ordained to preach the whole Bible, offer an erroneous substitute, a destructive counterfeit? If Jesus' Gospel were universally accepted His teachings followed, there would have been no Second World War. But because men hate Christ and love sin; because selfishness, carnal ambition, avarice, lust, love of power, and worship of money make them trample the rights of their fellow men, the world has been turned into bloody shambles. Jesus pleads, "Love one another!" but willful unbelievers insist, "Hate one another!" Jesus gave the Golden Rule, but dictators lay down the rule of steel and blood and iron.
~Walter A. Maier~
(continued with # 4)
Payday Someday # 3
Payday Someday # 3
"He came into his house heavy and displeased."
Naboth's quick, firm, courteous, final refusal took all the spokes from the wheel's of Ahab's desire and changed it into a foiled and foaming whirlpool of sullen sulks.
And Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezeelite had spoken to him, for he had said, "I will not give thee the inheritance of my father's. And he laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread" (1 Kings 21:4).
What a ridiculous picture. A king acting like a spoiled and sullen child - impotent in disappointment and ugly in petty rage! A king, whose victories over the Syrians have rung through many lands - a conqueror, a slave to himself - whining like a sick hound! A king, rejecting all converse with others, pouting like a spoiled and petulant child who has been denied one trinket in the midst of one thousand playthings! A king, in a chamber walled with cedar, and painted with vermilion" (Jeremiah 22:14), prostituting genius to theatrical trumpery.
Ahab went into his ivory house, while the sun was shining and the matters of the daytime were all astir, and went to bed and turned his face to the wall - his lips swollen with his mulish moping, his eyes burning with cheap anger-fire, his wicked heart stubborn in perverse rebellion against the commandment of God. Servants brought him his meal, plenteously prepared on platters beautiful, but he would eat no bread. Doubtless, musicians came to play skillfully on stringed instruments, but he drove them all away with imperious pestures and impatient growlings. He turned from his victuals as one turns from garbage and refuse. The conqueror of the Syrians is a low slave to dirt-cheap trivialities. His spirit, now devilishly sullen, is in bondage.
What an ancient picture we have of great powers dedicated to mean, ugly, petty things. Think of it! In the middle of the day, the commander-in-chief of an army seized by Sergeant Sensitive, General Ahab made prisoner by Private Pouts! The leader of the army laid low by Corporal Mopishness! A monarch moaning and blubbering and growingly refusing to eat because a man, a good man, because of the commandments of God and because of religious principles, would not sell or swap a little vineyard which was his by inheritance from his forefathers. Ahab had lost nothing - had gained nothing. No one had injured him. No one had made attempt on his life. Yet he, a king with a great army and a fat treasury, was acting like a blubbering baby. Cannon ability was expressing itself in popgun achievement. A massive giant sprawling on the bed like a dwarf punily peevish! A whale wallowing and spouting angrily about because he is denied minnow food! A bear growing sulkily because he cannot lick a spoon in which is a bit of honey! An eagle shrieking and beating his wings in the dust of his own displeasure like a quarreling sparrow fighting with other sparrows for the crumbs in the dust of a village street! A lion sulkily roaring because he was not granted the cheese in a mousetrap! A battleship cruising for a beetle!
What an ancient picture of great powers and talents prostituted to base an purposeless ends and withheld from the service of God! What an ancient spectacle! And how modern and up-to-date in this respect, was Ahab, king of Israel. What a likeness to him in conduct today are many talented men and women. I know men - you know men and women - with diamond and ruby abilities who are worth no more to God like Ahab, withhold their talents from God - using them in the service of the devil. People there are, not a few, who have pipe organ abilities and make no more music for the causes of Christ than a wheezy saxophone in an idiot's hands. People there are, many of them, who have incandescent light powers who make no more light for God than a smokey barn lantern, with smoke-blackened globe, on a stormy night. People there are - I know them and you know them - with locomotive powers doing pushcart work for God. People there are - and how sad it's true - who have steam-shovel abilities who are doing teaspoon work for God. Yes! Now look at this overfed but bellowing for a little spot of grass outside his own vast pasture lands - and, if you are withholding talents and powers from the service of God, receive the rebuke of the tragic and ludicrous picture.
And now, consider the third scene in this tragedy of "Payday Someday." It is:
The Wicked Wife
"And Jezebel his wife"
When Ahab would eat no bread, the servants went and told Jezebel. What she said to them, we do not know. Something of what she said to Ahab we do know. Puzzled and provoked at the news that her husband would not eat - that he had gone to bed when it was not bedtime - Jezebel went to investigate. She found him in bed with his face turned to the wall, his lips swollen with mulish moping, his eyes burning with cheap anger-fire, his heart stubborn in wicked rebellion. He was groaningly mournful and peevishly petulant - having up to the moment when she stood by his bedside, refused to eat or cheer up in the least.
~R. G. Lee~
(continued with # 4)
"He came into his house heavy and displeased."
Naboth's quick, firm, courteous, final refusal took all the spokes from the wheel's of Ahab's desire and changed it into a foiled and foaming whirlpool of sullen sulks.
And Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezeelite had spoken to him, for he had said, "I will not give thee the inheritance of my father's. And he laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread" (1 Kings 21:4).
What a ridiculous picture. A king acting like a spoiled and sullen child - impotent in disappointment and ugly in petty rage! A king, whose victories over the Syrians have rung through many lands - a conqueror, a slave to himself - whining like a sick hound! A king, rejecting all converse with others, pouting like a spoiled and petulant child who has been denied one trinket in the midst of one thousand playthings! A king, in a chamber walled with cedar, and painted with vermilion" (Jeremiah 22:14), prostituting genius to theatrical trumpery.
Ahab went into his ivory house, while the sun was shining and the matters of the daytime were all astir, and went to bed and turned his face to the wall - his lips swollen with his mulish moping, his eyes burning with cheap anger-fire, his wicked heart stubborn in perverse rebellion against the commandment of God. Servants brought him his meal, plenteously prepared on platters beautiful, but he would eat no bread. Doubtless, musicians came to play skillfully on stringed instruments, but he drove them all away with imperious pestures and impatient growlings. He turned from his victuals as one turns from garbage and refuse. The conqueror of the Syrians is a low slave to dirt-cheap trivialities. His spirit, now devilishly sullen, is in bondage.
What an ancient picture we have of great powers dedicated to mean, ugly, petty things. Think of it! In the middle of the day, the commander-in-chief of an army seized by Sergeant Sensitive, General Ahab made prisoner by Private Pouts! The leader of the army laid low by Corporal Mopishness! A monarch moaning and blubbering and growingly refusing to eat because a man, a good man, because of the commandments of God and because of religious principles, would not sell or swap a little vineyard which was his by inheritance from his forefathers. Ahab had lost nothing - had gained nothing. No one had injured him. No one had made attempt on his life. Yet he, a king with a great army and a fat treasury, was acting like a blubbering baby. Cannon ability was expressing itself in popgun achievement. A massive giant sprawling on the bed like a dwarf punily peevish! A whale wallowing and spouting angrily about because he is denied minnow food! A bear growing sulkily because he cannot lick a spoon in which is a bit of honey! An eagle shrieking and beating his wings in the dust of his own displeasure like a quarreling sparrow fighting with other sparrows for the crumbs in the dust of a village street! A lion sulkily roaring because he was not granted the cheese in a mousetrap! A battleship cruising for a beetle!
What an ancient picture of great powers and talents prostituted to base an purposeless ends and withheld from the service of God! What an ancient spectacle! And how modern and up-to-date in this respect, was Ahab, king of Israel. What a likeness to him in conduct today are many talented men and women. I know men - you know men and women - with diamond and ruby abilities who are worth no more to God like Ahab, withhold their talents from God - using them in the service of the devil. People there are, not a few, who have pipe organ abilities and make no more music for the causes of Christ than a wheezy saxophone in an idiot's hands. People there are, many of them, who have incandescent light powers who make no more light for God than a smokey barn lantern, with smoke-blackened globe, on a stormy night. People there are - I know them and you know them - with locomotive powers doing pushcart work for God. People there are - and how sad it's true - who have steam-shovel abilities who are doing teaspoon work for God. Yes! Now look at this overfed but bellowing for a little spot of grass outside his own vast pasture lands - and, if you are withholding talents and powers from the service of God, receive the rebuke of the tragic and ludicrous picture.
And now, consider the third scene in this tragedy of "Payday Someday." It is:
The Wicked Wife
"And Jezebel his wife"
When Ahab would eat no bread, the servants went and told Jezebel. What she said to them, we do not know. Something of what she said to Ahab we do know. Puzzled and provoked at the news that her husband would not eat - that he had gone to bed when it was not bedtime - Jezebel went to investigate. She found him in bed with his face turned to the wall, his lips swollen with mulish moping, his eyes burning with cheap anger-fire, his heart stubborn in wicked rebellion. He was groaningly mournful and peevishly petulant - having up to the moment when she stood by his bedside, refused to eat or cheer up in the least.
~R. G. Lee~
(continued with # 4)
Saturday, February 2, 2019
Don't Be Ashamed of Jesus # 2
Don't Be Ashamed of Jesus # 2
So that on the great day of our Lord's reappearing you cannot say, "You preached, but you never showed me the way to life," let me tell you just what His Gospel is! It took six weeks for the bad news of the Solomon Islands naval encounters to reach our people, but in less than six seconds this glorious message can be heard around the world. It is the "good news" (that is the original meaning of "Gospel"), the best news anyone can ever receive, the assurance that Jesus Christ, the Son of the Almighty and the Son of the Virgin, moved by unmeasurable love, came into this sin-saturated world, lived His life among sin-bound men and died on the sin-cursed Cross, all to remove your transgressions and grant you pardon, eternal salvation, and heaven itself! Though blinded, willful enemies of the faith try to change or alter, add or detract, question or quibble, this is how the Scripture explains the Gospel: "God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life!"
Never since Paul's day had the Gospel been proclaimed with the clarity and conviction shown by that mighty spiritual leader whose work millions commemorate this Sunday Martin Luther, reformer of the Church and restorer of New Testament Christianity. Just four and one quarter centuries ago yesterday he started the titanic task of restoring the Gospel. While time restrictions prevent us from broadcasting his immortal Ninety-five Theses, or religious truths, by which that earth-shaking Reformation began, we can present nine and five theses reemphasizing the glorious truths which Luther rediscovered and courageously restated. Here they are: First, the nine theses, or facts, which explain our redemption:
1. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" that is, lost the holiness with which the Lord created them. This is Bible truth.
2. Unforgiven sin is punished by eternal death in hell, Scripture, which has never made a mistake and never will, warns, "The wages of sin is death."
3. No man can remove his own transgressions, make himself pure and spotless in Heaven's sight. "Can...the leopard" change "his spots?" Holy Writ demands, to show how utterly impossible it is for us to cleanse our stained souls.
4. Nor can even saints or angels take away our transgressions. Revealed truth assures us that no man can "redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him."
5. Only the Almighty can remove sin's curse. If there is to be hope for men and women burdened with many and terrifying transgressions, they must find it in the God who cries out to a world of anguish and evil, "In Me is thine help!"
6. God not only can save us; He has saved us. He sent His Son to fulfill the Law we had broken, to assume the punishment of our iniquity, as our Substitute to pay the death penalty of all our guilt, so that, behold the Cross, we know, He "was delivered for our offenses."
7. Through faith in the Crucified and through faith alone we know that our sins are removed forever. The Bible promises, "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus."
8. By accepting the Saviour we who were "children of wrath" have become "children of God" who live under divine love, guidance, and protection.
9. By believing this glorious Gospel heaven is ours, for if we remain faithful to the end, God has promised us the "crown of life" eternal amid the indescribable radiance of our celestial homeland.
These are nine facts of the Gospel. As I repeat them I am sure some of my Modernist friends are shaking their heads either in protest or in condescending wonder. I can hear them call these Gospel truths "old-fashioned," "out of date," "narrow", "bigoted." Yet the only message which can turn souls from hell to heaven is this old but ever new Gospel, of which proud, self-sufficient men are ashamed, but for which the contrite can never thank God sufficiently.
There is more to Christ's Gospel, however. Here are five additional theses, divine truths, showing its glorious grace:
1. The blood-bought, cross-gained salvation is for you, each one of you individually. Our text offers its blessing "to everyone that believeth." You may be on the lowest rungs of human society, cut off from your fellow men because of your misdeeds. (I am now thinking of the triple murderess in the Ohio penitentiary at St. Mary's who every Sunday urges the women convicts to hear our radio message. I have in mind a young man in the Jefferson City, Missouri penitentiary, serving his second sentence, who recently wrote me that he had altogether forgotten Jesus until he heard our broadcast, when he pledged himself never to reject his Saviour again.) You may be soldiers or civilians, rich or poor, white or black, yellow or red; yet each of you can say, "This is my Gospel, my Christ, my Saviour!"
~Walter A. Maier~
(continued with # 3)
So that on the great day of our Lord's reappearing you cannot say, "You preached, but you never showed me the way to life," let me tell you just what His Gospel is! It took six weeks for the bad news of the Solomon Islands naval encounters to reach our people, but in less than six seconds this glorious message can be heard around the world. It is the "good news" (that is the original meaning of "Gospel"), the best news anyone can ever receive, the assurance that Jesus Christ, the Son of the Almighty and the Son of the Virgin, moved by unmeasurable love, came into this sin-saturated world, lived His life among sin-bound men and died on the sin-cursed Cross, all to remove your transgressions and grant you pardon, eternal salvation, and heaven itself! Though blinded, willful enemies of the faith try to change or alter, add or detract, question or quibble, this is how the Scripture explains the Gospel: "God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life!"
Never since Paul's day had the Gospel been proclaimed with the clarity and conviction shown by that mighty spiritual leader whose work millions commemorate this Sunday Martin Luther, reformer of the Church and restorer of New Testament Christianity. Just four and one quarter centuries ago yesterday he started the titanic task of restoring the Gospel. While time restrictions prevent us from broadcasting his immortal Ninety-five Theses, or religious truths, by which that earth-shaking Reformation began, we can present nine and five theses reemphasizing the glorious truths which Luther rediscovered and courageously restated. Here they are: First, the nine theses, or facts, which explain our redemption:
1. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" that is, lost the holiness with which the Lord created them. This is Bible truth.
2. Unforgiven sin is punished by eternal death in hell, Scripture, which has never made a mistake and never will, warns, "The wages of sin is death."
3. No man can remove his own transgressions, make himself pure and spotless in Heaven's sight. "Can...the leopard" change "his spots?" Holy Writ demands, to show how utterly impossible it is for us to cleanse our stained souls.
4. Nor can even saints or angels take away our transgressions. Revealed truth assures us that no man can "redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him."
5. Only the Almighty can remove sin's curse. If there is to be hope for men and women burdened with many and terrifying transgressions, they must find it in the God who cries out to a world of anguish and evil, "In Me is thine help!"
6. God not only can save us; He has saved us. He sent His Son to fulfill the Law we had broken, to assume the punishment of our iniquity, as our Substitute to pay the death penalty of all our guilt, so that, behold the Cross, we know, He "was delivered for our offenses."
7. Through faith in the Crucified and through faith alone we know that our sins are removed forever. The Bible promises, "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus."
8. By accepting the Saviour we who were "children of wrath" have become "children of God" who live under divine love, guidance, and protection.
9. By believing this glorious Gospel heaven is ours, for if we remain faithful to the end, God has promised us the "crown of life" eternal amid the indescribable radiance of our celestial homeland.
These are nine facts of the Gospel. As I repeat them I am sure some of my Modernist friends are shaking their heads either in protest or in condescending wonder. I can hear them call these Gospel truths "old-fashioned," "out of date," "narrow", "bigoted." Yet the only message which can turn souls from hell to heaven is this old but ever new Gospel, of which proud, self-sufficient men are ashamed, but for which the contrite can never thank God sufficiently.
There is more to Christ's Gospel, however. Here are five additional theses, divine truths, showing its glorious grace:
1. The blood-bought, cross-gained salvation is for you, each one of you individually. Our text offers its blessing "to everyone that believeth." You may be on the lowest rungs of human society, cut off from your fellow men because of your misdeeds. (I am now thinking of the triple murderess in the Ohio penitentiary at St. Mary's who every Sunday urges the women convicts to hear our radio message. I have in mind a young man in the Jefferson City, Missouri penitentiary, serving his second sentence, who recently wrote me that he had altogether forgotten Jesus until he heard our broadcast, when he pledged himself never to reject his Saviour again.) You may be soldiers or civilians, rich or poor, white or black, yellow or red; yet each of you can say, "This is my Gospel, my Christ, my Saviour!"
~Walter A. Maier~
(continued with # 3)
Payday Someday # 2
Payday Someday # 2
I introduce you to Elijah, the Tishbite, prophet of God at a time when by tens of thousands of thousands the people had forsaken God's covenants, thrown down God's altars, slain God's prophets with the sword (1 Kings 19:10). The prophet knowing much of the glorious past of the now apostate nation, must have been filled with horror when he learned of the rank heathenism, fierce cruelties and reeking licenticusness of Ahab's idolatrous capital. Holy anger burned within him like an unquenchable Vesuvius. He wore the roughest kind of cloths, but he had underneath these cloths a righteous and courageous heart. He ate bird's food and widow's fare, but he was a great physical and spiritual athlete. He was God's tall cedar that wrestled with the paganistic cyciones of his day without bending or breaking. He was God's granite wall that stood up and out against the rising tides of the apostasy of his day. Though much alone, he was sometimes attended by the invisible hosts of God. He grieved only when God's cause seemed tottering. He passed from earth without dying - into celestial glory. Every where courage is admired and manhood honored and service appreciated, he is honored as one of earth's greatest heroes and one of heaven's greatest saints. He was a seer who saw clearly. He was a great heart who felt deeply. He was a hero who dared valiantly.
And now with the introduction of these four characters - Naboth, the devout Jezreelite - Ahab, the vile human toad who squatted befoulingly on the throne of the nation - Jezebel, the beautiful adder beside the toad - and Elijah, the prophet of the living God. I bring you the tragedy of "Payday Someday."
The Real Estate Request
"Give me thy vineyard."
And it came to pass after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Sarmaria. And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house, and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it, or, if it seems good to thee, I will give the worth of it in money (1 Kings 21:1, 2).
Thus far Ahab was quite within his rights. No intention of cheating Naboth out of his vineyard or of killing him to get it. Honestly did he offer to give him its worth in money. Honestly did he offer him a better vineyard for it. Perfectly fair and square was Ahab in this request and, under circumstances, ordinary, one would have expected Naboth to put away any mere sentimental attachment which he had for his ancestral inheritance in order that he might please the king of his nation -especially when the king's aim was not to defraud or rob him. Ahab had not, however, counted upon the reluctance of all Jews to part with their inheritance of land. By peculiar tenure every Israelite held his land, and to all land-holding transactions there was another party, even God, "who made the heavens and the earth." Throughout Judah and Israel, Jehovah was the read owner of the soil; and every tribe received its territory and every family its inheritance by lot from Him, with the added condition that the land should not be sold forever.
"The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with Me...So shall not the inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe; for every one of the children of Israel shall keep himself to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers...but every one of the tribes of the children of Israel shall keep himself to his own inheritance (Lev. 25:23; Num. 36:7, 9).
Thus we see that the permanent sale of the paternal inheritance was forbidden by law. Ahab forgot - if he had ever really known it - that for Naboth to sell for money or to swap for a better vineyard his little vineyard would seem to that good man like a denial of his allegiance to the true religion when jubilee restoration was neglected in such idolatrous times.
So, though he was Ahab's nearest neighbor, Naboth, with religious scruples blended with the pride of ancestry, stood firmly on his rights - and, with an expression of horror on his face with tones of terror in his words, refused to sell or swap his vineyard to the king. Feeling that he must prefer the duty he owed to God to any danger that might arise from man, he made firm refusal. With much fear or God and little fear of man, he said: "The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee" (1 Kings 21:3).
True to the religious teachings of his father with loyalty to the covenant God of Israel, he believed that he held the land in fee simple from God. His father and grandfather and doubtless grandfather's father, had owned the land before him. All the memories of childhood were tangled in its grapevines. His father's hands, folded now in the dust of death, had used the pruning blade among the branches, and because of this every branch and vine was dear. The ties of sentiment, of religion and of family pride bound and endeared him to the place. So his refusal to sell was quick, firm, final and courteous. Then, too, doubtless working or resting or strolling as he often did in his vineyard hard by the king's castle, Naboth had glimpses of strange and alien sights in the palace. He had seen with his own eyes what orgies idolatry led to when the queen was at home in her palace in Jezreel; and Naboth, deeply pious, felt smirched and hurt at the very request. He felt that his little plot of ground, so rich in prayer and fellowship, so sanctified with sweet and holy memories, would be tainted and befouled and cursed forever if it came into the hands of Jezebel. So with "the courage of a bird that dares the wild sea," he took his stand against the king's proposal.
And that brings us to the second scene in this tragedy. It is:
The Pouting Potentate
~R. G. Lee~
(continued with # 3)
I introduce you to Elijah, the Tishbite, prophet of God at a time when by tens of thousands of thousands the people had forsaken God's covenants, thrown down God's altars, slain God's prophets with the sword (1 Kings 19:10). The prophet knowing much of the glorious past of the now apostate nation, must have been filled with horror when he learned of the rank heathenism, fierce cruelties and reeking licenticusness of Ahab's idolatrous capital. Holy anger burned within him like an unquenchable Vesuvius. He wore the roughest kind of cloths, but he had underneath these cloths a righteous and courageous heart. He ate bird's food and widow's fare, but he was a great physical and spiritual athlete. He was God's tall cedar that wrestled with the paganistic cyciones of his day without bending or breaking. He was God's granite wall that stood up and out against the rising tides of the apostasy of his day. Though much alone, he was sometimes attended by the invisible hosts of God. He grieved only when God's cause seemed tottering. He passed from earth without dying - into celestial glory. Every where courage is admired and manhood honored and service appreciated, he is honored as one of earth's greatest heroes and one of heaven's greatest saints. He was a seer who saw clearly. He was a great heart who felt deeply. He was a hero who dared valiantly.
And now with the introduction of these four characters - Naboth, the devout Jezreelite - Ahab, the vile human toad who squatted befoulingly on the throne of the nation - Jezebel, the beautiful adder beside the toad - and Elijah, the prophet of the living God. I bring you the tragedy of "Payday Someday."
The Real Estate Request
"Give me thy vineyard."
And it came to pass after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Sarmaria. And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house, and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it, or, if it seems good to thee, I will give the worth of it in money (1 Kings 21:1, 2).
Thus far Ahab was quite within his rights. No intention of cheating Naboth out of his vineyard or of killing him to get it. Honestly did he offer to give him its worth in money. Honestly did he offer him a better vineyard for it. Perfectly fair and square was Ahab in this request and, under circumstances, ordinary, one would have expected Naboth to put away any mere sentimental attachment which he had for his ancestral inheritance in order that he might please the king of his nation -especially when the king's aim was not to defraud or rob him. Ahab had not, however, counted upon the reluctance of all Jews to part with their inheritance of land. By peculiar tenure every Israelite held his land, and to all land-holding transactions there was another party, even God, "who made the heavens and the earth." Throughout Judah and Israel, Jehovah was the read owner of the soil; and every tribe received its territory and every family its inheritance by lot from Him, with the added condition that the land should not be sold forever.
"The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with Me...So shall not the inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe; for every one of the children of Israel shall keep himself to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers...but every one of the tribes of the children of Israel shall keep himself to his own inheritance (Lev. 25:23; Num. 36:7, 9).
Thus we see that the permanent sale of the paternal inheritance was forbidden by law. Ahab forgot - if he had ever really known it - that for Naboth to sell for money or to swap for a better vineyard his little vineyard would seem to that good man like a denial of his allegiance to the true religion when jubilee restoration was neglected in such idolatrous times.
So, though he was Ahab's nearest neighbor, Naboth, with religious scruples blended with the pride of ancestry, stood firmly on his rights - and, with an expression of horror on his face with tones of terror in his words, refused to sell or swap his vineyard to the king. Feeling that he must prefer the duty he owed to God to any danger that might arise from man, he made firm refusal. With much fear or God and little fear of man, he said: "The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee" (1 Kings 21:3).
True to the religious teachings of his father with loyalty to the covenant God of Israel, he believed that he held the land in fee simple from God. His father and grandfather and doubtless grandfather's father, had owned the land before him. All the memories of childhood were tangled in its grapevines. His father's hands, folded now in the dust of death, had used the pruning blade among the branches, and because of this every branch and vine was dear. The ties of sentiment, of religion and of family pride bound and endeared him to the place. So his refusal to sell was quick, firm, final and courteous. Then, too, doubtless working or resting or strolling as he often did in his vineyard hard by the king's castle, Naboth had glimpses of strange and alien sights in the palace. He had seen with his own eyes what orgies idolatry led to when the queen was at home in her palace in Jezreel; and Naboth, deeply pious, felt smirched and hurt at the very request. He felt that his little plot of ground, so rich in prayer and fellowship, so sanctified with sweet and holy memories, would be tainted and befouled and cursed forever if it came into the hands of Jezebel. So with "the courage of a bird that dares the wild sea," he took his stand against the king's proposal.
And that brings us to the second scene in this tragedy. It is:
The Pouting Potentate
~R. G. Lee~
(continued with # 3)
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