Our wrestle

No problem Dusty love you how have you been dear sister God bless you please keep me in your prayers im praying for you all love you guys and im so thankfull to God for leading me to this site im being greatly encouraged by what i read God bless you all especially the moderaters and team may God give you all direction wisdom and discernment and i know He does and masy He hedge each of His precious people with Holy klove and fire and the precious blood of Jesus for the glory of His name i love all my brothers andd dear sisters in Christ the world over what a great privilige and honor to be a member of Gods family im lost for words of grattitude to God how can i ever realy say how worthy He is to care so much to send His Son to save a wretch like me i know i dont deserve to be saved im the least of the least ion His faily thak you Abba Father in Jesus name i truly do love you with all my heart soul mind and strength always Your will be done for the glory of Your Name my times are in Your hands i dont even deserve to be here but for your grace truly thy will be done Mighty God everlasting Father Prince of Peace wionderfuyll Counseller Glorify Your name it always Has been amnd will be Yours is the dominion and Power forever His love endure forever the sea of thy mercy knows no bounds i love you My God
 
Thanks " Wounded" .

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Dustty i thimk you can buy the program for around 69 dollars thats au so i hope that helps it realy is a great program its got bibles teaching biographies early church fathers post niciene heaps som books only several are a bit dodgy but anyway its great reading God bless you dear sister love ou
 
Be filled with Holy Spirit

ARGUMENT 22 — “FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT”
17. ​
​
“Therefore be ye not foolish, but understand what is the will of the
Lord.”​

18. ​
​
“Be not drunk with wine, in which there is riot, but be ye filled with the
Spirit.” This verse is beautifully and lucidly expository of the preceding,
warning us not to be “foolish,” but to understand the will of the Lord.​

36​
Now, what is the will of the Lord? The eighteenth verse answers, ​
“Be ye
filled with the Spirit.” Hence, we see that the will of the Lord is that we all​

“​
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be filled with the Spirit,” and in case ofdelinquency we are denominated
“foolish.” O how few people in this ‘world are “filled with the Spirit” The
virgins in the parable were called “foolish,” because they were not “filled
with the Spirit.” We can well afford to let the people call us “foolish,” for
that is no evidence that it is true. But we can not afford to have the Holy
Ghost pronounce us “foolish,” for in that case we are fools to an absolute
Certainty. Then let us all get “filled with the Spirit,” and keep full, as only
in this way we can escape the imputation of folly by the Infallible One.
Bear in mind, you must be completely emptied of sin before you can be
“filled with the Holy Ghost.” Then expeditiously get under the blood, and
trust for a radical emptying of your spirit from all evil. Then trust your
Savior to fill you with the Holy Ghost, and there abide forever.​

19,20. ​
​
These verses establish the fact that the Holy Ghost not only fills
the heart, but he opens the mouth and makes us sing, testify, and speak
fluently and indefatigably for God. It is simply awful to spend an hour in a
fashionable city church listening to Satan’s giggling choir squeal out a few
operatic songs, utterly unintelligible to the congregation sitting dumb as
tombstones. These graveyard Churches are the devil’s counterfeits. God’s
Churches are like a graveyard on the resurrection morn, when the awful
excitement of the archangel’s trump is bursting every tomb. Bishop
FitzGerald well says, that “when the singing is confined to the choir, it is
very inappropriate to sing anything except ‘Hark, from the tombs a doleful
sound!’ as it is a funeral occasion; the Church is dead.” Rest assured the
Holy Ghost always makes people sing. So when a congregation quits​

singing, they have already become a good missionary field.
 
Godbey, W. B. - New Testament Commentary​
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– Revelation Vol. 5 – Acts - Romans​

Vol. 2​
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– Hebrews - Jude Vol. 6 – Gospel Harmony, Part 1​

Vol. 3​
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– Ephesians - Philemon Vol. 7 – Gospel Harmony, Part 2​

Vol. 4 – Corinthians - Galatians
 
Gift of righteousness

V​
ERSE 17. For if by one man’s offense, etc. The connection of this verse, as
indicated by for, is with ver. 16: ‘We are justified by Christ not only from
the guilt of Adam’s first sin, but from our own innumerable transgressions;
for if death reigned over us for one offense, much more shall life reign
through one who is none other and no less than Jesus Christ.’ It is
doubtful, however, whether this verse is a mere amplification of the idea of
ver. 15, which, in import and structure, it so much resembles; or whether
the stress is to be laid on the last clause, reigning in life; so that the point
of the difference between Adam and Christ, as here indicated, is, Christ not
only delivers from death, but bestows eternal life; or, finally, whether the
emphasis is to be laid on the word receive. The idea would then be, ‘If we
are thus subject to death for an offense, in which we had no personal
concern, how much more shall we be saved by a righteousness which we
voluntarily embrace.’ This appears to be Calvin’s view, who says: “Ut
miseria peccati haereditate potiaris, satis est esse hominem, residet enim in
carne et sanguine; ut Christi justitia fruaris, fidelem esse, necessarium est,
quia fide acquiritur ejus consortium.” The decision of these questions is
not at all material to the general interpretation of the passage. Both of the
ideas contained in the two latter views of the verse are probably to be
included. By one man’s offense, tw|~ tou~ eJno<v paraptw~mati, by the
offense of the one (viz. Adam) death reigned, i.e., triumphed over all men,​

by one​
​
​
​
​
. Here again the dative paraptw>mati has a causal force, and the
assertion of the apostle is, that the offense of Adam was the cause of death
coming on all men. His sin was not the cause of death by any physical
efficiency; nor as the mere occasion of leading men to incur by their own
act the penalty of death; nor by corrupting the nature of man, which
corruption is the ground of the inflicted curse; but, as is asserted in the
preceding verse, because his sin was the ground of the judicial​

260​
condemnation, ​
to< kri>ma eijv kata>krima, which passed on all mankind.
If that is so, much more, says the apostle, shall they which receive; oJi
lamba>nontev may be taken substantively, the receivers; or the present
participle, those receiving, is used to express the condition on which the
enjoyment of the blessing is suspended. The abundance of grace, the
abounding grace, the grace which, in ver. 15, is said (ejperi>sseuse) hath
abounded towards us. This grace is the unmerited love of God, which is
the source of the gift of righteousness, dwrea< th~v dikaiosu>nhv, i.e.,
righteousness is the gift offered and received. That righteousness here does
not mean holiness, is evident from the constant use of the word by Paul in
a different sense in this epistle; from the fact that it is pardon, justification,
justifying righteousness, not sanctification, that Paul in the context
represents as the blessing received from Christ; and because it is in this
verse opposed to the reigning of death, or state of condemnation on
account of the offense of Adam. Professor Stuart, therefore, in accordance
with the great majority of commentators, very correctly states the
sentiment of the verse thus: “For if all are in a state of condemnation by
reason of the offense of one, much more shall those towards whom
abundance of mercy and pardoning grace are shown, be redeemed from a
state of condemnation, and advanced to a state of happiness.” The general
sentiment of the verse is thus correctly exhibited; but some of the more
prominent terms do not appear to have their full force assigned to them.​

They which receive the abundant grace​
​
​
​
​
, expresses more than that this grace
is manifested to them; all such do not reign in life. This phrase evidently
implies the voluntary reception of the offered boon. The gift of
righteousness, too, is something more than pardoning grace. It is that
which is expressed in ver. 15, by the free gift; and in ver. 16, by the free gift
unto justification. It is, therefore, the gift of justification; or what is but
another method of stating the same idea, it is the righteousness of Christ
by which we are justified, since the gift of justification includes the gift of
Christ’s righteousness. The meaning of the verse consequently is, ‘If on
account of the offense of one man we are condemned, much more shall
those who receive the righteousness graciously offered to them in the
gospel, not only be delivered from condemnation, but also reign in life by
one, Jesus Christ;’ that is, be gloriously exalted in the participation of that​

life of holiness and communion with God which is the end of our being.
Hodge, Charles – I Corinthians • II Corinthians • Ephesians • Romans
 
No condmnation

There is no condemnation​
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, ​
oujde<n kata>krima, does not mean nihil
damnatione dignum (nothing worthy of condemnation,) as Erasmus and
many others render it, but there is no condemnation. Those who are in
Christ are not exposed to condemnation. And this again is not to be
understood as descriptive of their present state merely, but of their
permanent position. They are placed beyond the reach of condemnation.
They shall never be condemned. The meaning of a proposition is often
best understood by the arguments by which it is sustained. It is so in this
case. The whole chapter is a proof of the safety of believers, of their
security not only from present condemnation, but from future perdition.
Nothing shall ever separate them from the love of God, is the triumphant
conclusion to which the apostle arrives. Those to whom there is and never
can be any condemnation, are described, first as to their relation to Christ,
and secondly as to their character. The first assigns the reason of their
security, the second enables us to determine to whom that security
belongs. First, they are in Christ. In what sense? This must be determined,
not so much from the force of the words, as from the teachings of
Scripture.​

386​
1. They are in him federally, as all men were in Adam, 1 Corinthians
15:22; Romans 5:12-21.
2. They are in him vitally, as the branch is in the vine, John 15:1-7; or, as
the head and members of the body are in vital union, 1 Corinthians
12:27; Ephesians 1:23. This union arises from the indwelling of the
Holy Ghost, 1 Corinthians 12:13; 6:15, 19.
3. They are in him by faith, Ephesians 3:17; Galatians 3:26, 27. It is not
in virtue of any one of these bonds of union exclusively, but in virtue
of them all (so far as adults are concerned,) that there is no
condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
It follows from the nature of this union, that it must transform the
character of those who are its subjects. If, therefore, any man is in Christ
Jesus, he is a new creature, 2 Corinthians 5:17; John 15:4; Philippians
3:20; Colossians 2:6; 1 John 2:5; 3:6. As the union includes the bodies of
believers, as well as their souls, 1 Corinthians 6:15-19, so this transforming
power will ultimately extend to the former as well as to the latter, Romans
8:10, 11. In this verse, (according to the common text,) the transforming
power of this union with Christ is expressed by saying, that those who are
in him, ​
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. To walk means to
regulate the inward and outward life. It includes, therefore, the
determination of the judgments, the feelings, the purposes, as well as the
external conduct. The controlling principle in believers is not the flesh, i.e.​

the corrupt nature, but the Holy Spirit who dwells in them, as the source
of knowledge, of holiness, of strength, of peace and love. They are not​
sarkikoi> ​
​
​
​
governed by the sa>rx, but pneumatikoi> governed by the
Spirit. The only evidence therefore to ourselves, or to others, of our being
in Christ, is this subjection of the whole life to the control of his Spirit, so
that we discern and believe the truth, 1 Corinthians 2:14-16, and are
governed by it. When the word pneu~ma is not only without the article, but
opposed to sa>rx, it may be understood of the Spirit as the principle of
life in the believer, and in that view be equivalent to the new man, or the
renewed principle. This is the view adopted by many as the meaning of
the word in this passage. This clause, however, is of doubtful authority. It
occurs in ver. 4, and may by a transcriber have been transferred to this
place. The whole clause is omitted in the majority of the uncial MSS., and
by the great body of modern critics. The latter clause only is omitted in the​

 
MODERATORS COMMENT


Dear Wounded,

We have combined a further 4 of your threads into this thread as they are just a continuation of the same thread.

Please do not start a new thread for each post but if it is a continuation of the same topic post it as a new post in the existing thread.

That makes it much easier for everyone to understand

Thank you
 
CHAPTER 4​
THE NEGLECTED CUP​
“The fellowship of His sufferings”— Philippians 3:10​
L​
​
et us continue our meditation on “the fellowship of His sufferings.” The
phrase is taken from the eager speech of a veteran apostle! One would
have felt its fitness and congeniality upon the lips of a young man, some
fresh, enthusiastic knight, with his armour just newly belted about him,
and setting out from the threshold upon some crusade of valorous
enterprise. In such conditions this strenuous speech would have been
congenial, and there would have been nothing startling in its proclamation
— “I set out” that I may know Him, and “the fellowship of His
sufferings!”
But old men speak naturally of retirement; their fighting days are over; and
they leave the stern encounter to the younger men. They often speak of
having earned their rest, and the blazing ambitions of their earlier days
have become cool. They no longer covet the “hardness” of the battlefield;
they steal through the green pastures and by the still waters in the soft
light of the setting sun.
But here is an old man with all the impetuous ambitions of his prime. His
burning zeal makes even the enthusiasm of young Timothy seem dim, and
he contends with the foremost of the youths for the hottest parts of the
field.
He is in prison now, but he is like some stabled hunter which hears the cry
of the hounds. He is as tense and eager as ever. His ambitions are a young
man’s ambitions; his very speech is a young man’s speech; his metaphors
and similes are just those which leap most readily to the lips of youth;
they are sought, not from sleeping boats in the harbour, or from quiet
flocks in the meadows, but from the straining, strenuous worlds of the
racecourse, the amphitheatre, and the gymnasium.​

26​
And so here he is, in the very van of the Lord’s hosts, in the very fighting
line, ambitious to share with his Lord the central hardships of the strife.
“That I may know Him . . . and the fellowship of His sufferings.”
“The​
fellowship of His sufferings!” That is a great New Testament word,
and especially is it one of the great determining words in the speech of the
Apostle Paul. Let us enter into its wealth through this little gate which I
find in the Acts of the Apostles. “And they had all things in common.”
The little phrase, “in common,” is closely akin to the word, “Fellowship,”
and by the help of the one we may gain a clear interpretation of the other.
“They had all things in common”; they had a common room and a common
table, and they all shared alike in the abundance or impoverishment of the
feast.
And so, too, there is a table at which our Master sits, spread with the
things which He and His have to eat and drink. And we, too, may have “all
things in common” with Him; nay, it is the high sign and seal of
discipleship that we do sit with Him at the common board.
But here is our frequent mistake, that we regard that table as laden only
with welcome provisions, and even with delicate and dainty luxuries. On
that table there is the provision of peace, and the provision of joy, and the
provision of glory! And over all the table, from end to end of it, there is
the soft and healing light of grace. That is how we think of the table, and,
blessed be God, all these rare provisions are surely to be found at the
feast; and we may have all these things “in common” with the Lord.
But there is also another cup on the table, a cup that is very near the
Master’s hand, a cup which we very frequently forget or ignore. It is a
bitter cup, the cup of the Lord’s sufferings. “Are ye able to drink of the
cup that I drink of?” Are we prepared to have “all things in common”? We
drink the cup of kindness, the overflowing cup of redeeming grace. “Are
ye able to drink of the cup that I drink of?”
“I have tasted,” I think I hear him say, “I have tasted and seen how
gracious He is. I have drunk the cup of His salvation; but I thirst for a
deeper communion still; not only the sweet and palatable cup, but that
dark and bitter cup would I taste; that cup whose contents are as blood. I​

27​
would have ‘all things in common’! ‘I count all things but loss . . . that I
may know Him . . . and the fellowship of His sufferings.’”
Now our intimacy with the Lord can best be estimated by our knowledge
of the contents of that bitter cup. Other things upon the table have their
significance, and to taste them argues a certain measure of acquaintance
with the King; but the deeper significance gathers about that cup of darker
hue. The quality of our fellowship with the Lord is best revealed, not by
our capacity for joy, but by our capacity for suffering. We often test our
communion with the Lord by the measure of our equanimity. If our life is
calm and passive, and the wrinkles are absent from our brow, and we can
sing, “Peace, perfect peace!” then we assume that our intimacy with the
Lord must be very deep and true.
But equanimity is a virtue very much misunderstood, and its popular
representative is often only a well-disguised indifference. “Peace” is often
used to label undignified and worldly ease, and as such it denotes no sort
of fellowship with the Lord. There is an equanimity which is death. We do
not reveal our high spiritual kinship by our ability to remain unruffled, but
by our capacity to be stirred. It is when life is upheaved to its depths that
we know the Lord; it is when deep calleth unto deep that we have the
conditions of vital communion.
And so it is not by our pleasures, but by our pangs that we may discover
our likeness to the Lord. “Are ye able to drink of the cup that I drink of?”
That is the cup we forget, and yet it is in the cup of suffering that we
attain the finest and rarest spiritual communion.
And yet how far from this is the common reasoning! We say one to
another, “Have you found peace?” — and if an affirmative answer be
returned, we give glory to God; and well we may, for to have drunk the
cup of spiritual peace is a sure witness that we are found at the table of
the Lord.
But how far has our fellowship advanced? How rarely we ask one another,
“Have you become a partaker of the sufferings of Christ? Have you lifted
that cup to your lips? And if so, when and how and where did you taste
the bitter draught?”​
28​
I am afraid that if we were subjected to these most searching questions the
majority of us would have to confess that we had kept our eyes upon the
other parts of the table, and that we had confined ourselves to the
sparkling and welcome draughts of spiritual delight. But it is a shallow
intimacy which confines itself to the pleasures of the table; the deeper
discipleship lays hold of the darker cup, and enters into “the fellowship of
His sufferings.”
Now what is there in that much neglected cup? What is the bitterness
which we can have in common with the Lord? What darker experiences can
we share with Him? Nay, what is it we must share before we are kinsmen
worthy of the name?
Well, no one can be long in the presence of the Saviour without noticing
that He always drank a bitter cup when He came into the presence of sin.
The prevailing sin​
hurt Him, it crucified His spirit long before it crucified
His flesh. Here is Jerusalem, wicked, wayward and indifferent, wasting its
hallowed treasure in decorated debauchery. And the Master gazes upon its
unholy pleasures and shames, and He weeps! Have we entered into the
fellowship of that suffering? Have we tasted that cup? Or have we been so
fascinated by the glittering decoration as to be oblivious to the
debauchery?
Let us look at the Master, Jesus Christ, again, as He lifts to His lips the
bitter cup. “And Jesus stooped downs, and with His finger wrote on the
ground.” Can you feel what is going on there? Have you never listened to a
questionable or unclean story, and, even while it was being told, for very
shame you have not known where to fix your modest eyes? “And Jesus
stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground.” He was, at that
very moment, drinking the bitter cup, and when we share His burning
shame, we enter into “the fellowship of His sufferings.”
But how few there are who share it! We are interested in sin; we can lift
our eyes in delighted inquisitiveness; we can follow its unclean track down
column after column of reeking print, and we never hurl the record away in
weeping and consuming shame. Sin attracts us, it does not blister us; it
interests, it does not burn. We can gaze upon it in curious observation, and
it does not create an emotional convulsion. We can see it and laugh; we can
see it and sleep.​

29​
The Master saw it and wept. What a discord is to a refined and disciplined
ear, so, in immeasurably deeper degree, should sin be to the intimate
companions of Christ. What a coarse daub is to a well-trained and
interpreting eye, so should sin be to eyes that have been anointed with the
eye salve of grace. The sin of the city should make all true Christians
smart. But does it? Do we suffer with our suffering Lord? Or is that a cup
whose bitter draught we have not drunk?
Have you ever marked that word in the Book of Ezra, when that sensitive
soul had discovered the sin of his people? “I fell upon my knees, and
spread out my hands unto the Lord my God: and I said, O my God, I am
ashamed and blush to lift up my face to Thee!” The suppliant and his
Lord were just then drinking out of the same cup.
But how frequently in our life the shame is missing, and the blush is
absent, and there is no suffering, no pain! And, therefore, it is that because
there is no pain at sin; there is no haste to remove it. We are slow footed
because we are slow to burn.
Our feet will become “like hinds’ feet” when there is a burning shame in
our souls, and when we taste the unutterable bitterness of all sin. We shall
be swift in the ways and ministeries of redemption when we have entered
into “the fellowship of His sufferings.”
And that cup again! What else can we share, if our Saviour and we are to
have “all things in common”? We cannot be long with the Lord without
noting how deeply He suffered with the sufferings of others. Other folk’s
sorrows He made His own, and He drank deeply of everybody’s bitter
cup. Have we entered into the fellowship of those sufferings? You may
possibly reply, “I’ve got enough of my own!”
Yes, and that is perhaps the very reason why you have so many! Personal
sorrows, selfishly nursed, become more burdensome by the nursing. Many
times have I known a personal grief nursed into an intolerable load. “I’ve
got enough of my own!” So we have, and more than enough; but if we
made other folk’s sorrows our own as well, the miracle would happen
which has been wrought in innumerable lives, the double load would be
more tolerable than either of the single loads, and the yoke would become
easy and the burden light.​
30​
At any rate, when we add the fire of another man’s suffering to our own,
there is One in the fire “like unto the Son of man,” and in that strong
controlling Presence “the fire shall not kindle upon thee to destroy.” And,
at any rate again, when we sorrow with another’s sorrow, we are drinking
the cup of the Lord, and we enter into “the fellowship of His sufferings.”
We can drink that cup of sympathetic suffering in silence. It does not
inevitably demand the clumsy instrument of speech. I remember a saintly
woman telling me some time ago how she had gone to call upon another
woman, over whose life there had suddenly fallen the cold shadow of a
benumbing grief. “I just held her hand, and said nothing, and we both
wept!”
And when our visitor told me the story, I called to mind how, when those
premonitory symptoms occurred which periodically threatened mental
darkness to Mary Lamb, she and her brother, Charles Lamb, would go in
the early morning, or in the late night, speechless and weeping, over the
desolate way that led to the asylum. They said nothing to each other; they
just walked the gloomy way, hand in hand. I care little just now what his
creed was; I say that when Charles Lamb gave his sorely afflicted sister
the hand of a silent but bleeding sympathy he was lifting to his lips the
bitter goblet from the table of his Lord; he entered into “the fellowship of
His sufferings.”
Now I think we are born with an adequate equipment for sharing the
sufferings of our fellows. Our very birthright includes a sensitiveness to
another’s woes. A little child instinctively discerns the shadow, and its
tears fall in ready sympathy. But as we grow older, we trifle with this
precious inheritance. We waste our substance. We pervert and prostitute
our emotional wealth. We are moved, but we do not move; we have a
gracious impulse, but we give it no way; and what happens? The waters of
unfulfilled emotion congeal into frost, and the very ministers of intended
service become the friends of a severer alienation.
That is the peril of novels; they excite an emotion which frequently reacts
in petrifying power. And that is the peril of theatres. And that is the peril
of sermons! And that is the peril of grace! “It is a savour of life unto life,
or of death unto death.” Aye, in these high places of emotion fire can
become frost, and the emotion which does not issue in practical ministry​
31​
freezes and binds the very life in which it was born. And so we leave our
childhood behind, our endowment becomes our bane, we cease to be able
to enter into the sufferings of Christ — and the Saviour suffers alone.
But “blessed are they that mourn,” who have not lost their capacity of a
weeping and helpful sympathy. Aye, thrice blessed are they who in their
prime retain the heart of a little child, who can weep with them that weep,
who tread the winepress with the Saviour and enter into “the fellowship
of His sufferings.”
And, last, in this apostolic ambition to have all things in common, we can
enter into the fellowship of our Saviour’s sufferings by the all-complete
surrender of ourselves to the service of our fellowmen. Our Lord served
other people to the point of physical weakness and exhaustion, and even
unto death. Our service too frequently ends where bloodletting begins. We
stop short of the promise of fertility. “The blood of the martyrs is the
seed of the Church.” Yes, and the blood of the servant fertilizes the field of
his service. “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood!”
And it is just at that point of resistance that we begin to win. It is just
when our service becomes costly that it begins to pay. Life becomes
contagious when it becomes sacrificial. Our work begins to tell when the
workman is content to suffer; when he persists even unto blood.
But is it not true that for many of us our service ends just when we reach
the bitter cup? “Are ye able to drink the cup that I drink of?” No, we are
not able, and when our work and service become bitter, we give it up.
“From that day” — Calvary in sight — “many of His disciples turned
back, and walked no more with Him.” That teacher in the school— where
is he now? Oh, he got tired of it! Which just means that he was not able to
go on when to go on drew blood; he could not enter into “the fellowship of
the sufferings.”
And that is our pitiable mood. So long as there is no drain, we can persist;
when there is a demand for the veins to be opened, we retire. And so we
miss the best of the feast. For they who take into their hands the goblet of
bitterness, humbly saying, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me:
nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done,” will find that by that bitter
draught they attain into a spiritual kinship and companionship which is​
32​
infinite compensation, and even in their sorrow and weariness “the joy of
the Lord is their strength.”
And so just one word from old Samuel Rutherford, from a letter he wrote
to John Kennedy: “ye contracted with Christ, I hope, when first ye began
to follow Him, that ye would bear His Cross. Fulfill your part of the
contract with patience, and break not to Jesus Christ. . . Be honest,
brother, in your bargaining with Him. . . . Forward, brother, and lose not​
your grips. . . . In the strength of Jesus, dispatch your business
 
I have yet to read this last one, but thanks Wounded, I'm enjoying your posts.

God bless you.
 
I pray that God blesses each and everyone of you and builds all His people up till we all reach the unity of faith lets stand together in His mighty Name He alone is worthy i love you all so much God bless in Jesus mighy name you are all dear and precious to e and i would gladly lay my life down for you all
 
CHAPTER II.​
ADORATION.​
T​
​
​
​
his has been defined as the act of rendering Divine honor, including in it
reverence, esteem and love. It literally signifies to apply the hand to the
mouth, “to kiss the hand;” in Eastern countries this is one of the great
marks of respect and submission. The importance of coming before God in
this spirit is great, therefore it is so often impressed upon us in the Word
of God.
The Rev. Newman Hall, in his work on the Lord’s Prayer, says “Man’s
worship, apart from revelation, has been uniformly characterized by
selfishness. We come to God either to thank Him for benefits already
received, or to implore still further benefits: food, raiment, health, safety,
comfort. Like Jacob at Bethel, we are disposed to make the worship we
render to God correlative with ‘food to eat, and raiment to put on.’ This
style of petition, in which self generally precedes and predominates, if it
does not altogether absorb, our supplications, is not only seen in the
votaries of false systems, but in the majority of the prayers of professed
Christians. Our prayers are like the Parthian horsemen, who ride one way
while they look another; we seem to go toward God, but, indeed, reflect
upon ourselves, And this may be the reason why many times our prayers
are sent forth, like the raven out of Noah’s ark, and never return. But when
we make the glory of God the chief end of our devotion, they go forth like
the dove, and return to us again with an olive branch.”
Let me refer you to a passage in the prophecies of Daniel. He was one of
the men who knew how to pray; his prayer brought the blessing of heaven
upon himself and upon his people. He says: “I set my face unto the Lord
God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and
ashes; and I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and
said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy
to them that love Him, and to them that keep His commandments!”​

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The thought I want to call special attention to is conveyed in the words,
“O Lord, the great and dreadful God!” Daniel took his right place before
God — in the dust; he put God in His right place. It was when Abraham
was on his face, prostrate before God, that God spoke to him. Holiness
belongs to God; sinfulness belongs to us.
Brooks, that grand old Puritan writer, says: “A person of real holiness is
much affected and taken up in the admiration of the holiness of God.
Unholy persons may be somewhat affected and taken with the other
excellences of God; it is only holy souls that are taken and affected with
His holiness. The more holy any are, the more deeply are they affected by
this. To the holy angels, the holiness of God is the sparkling diamond in
the ring of glory. But unholy persons are affected and taken with anything
rather than with this. Nothing strikes the sinner into such a damp as a
discourse on the holiness of God; it is as the handwriting on the wall;
nothing makes the head and heart of a sinner to ache like a sermon upon
the Holy One; nothing galls and gripes, nothing stings and terrifies
unsanctified ones, like a lively setting forth of the holiness of God. But to
holy souls there are no discourses that do more suit and satisfy them, that
do more delight and content them, that do more please and profit them,
than those that do most fully and powerfully discover God to be glorious
in holiness.” So, in coming before God, we must adore and reverence His
name.
The same thing is brought out in Isaiah:
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a
throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood
the seraphim; each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and
with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried
unto another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole
earth is full of His glory.”
When we see the holiness of God, we shall adore and magnify Him. Moses
had to learn the same lesson. God told him to take his shoes from off his
feet, for the place whereon he stood was holy ground. When we hear men​
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trying to make out that they are holy, and speaking about their holiness,
they make light of the holiness of God. It is His holiness that we need to
think and speak about; when we do that, we shall be prostrate in the dust.
You remember, also, how it was with Peter. When Christ made Himself
known to him, he said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”
A sight of God is enough to show us how holy He is, and how unholy we
are.
We find that Job too, had to be taught the same lesson. “Then Job
answered the Lord, and said: Behold I am vile; what shall I answer Thee? I
will lay my hand upon my mouth.”
As you hear Job discussing with his friends you would think he was one
of the holiest men who ever lived. He was eyes to the blind, and feet to the
lame; he fed the hungry, and clothed the naked. What a wonderfully good
man he was! It was all I, I, I. At last God said to him, “Gird up your loins
like a man, and I will put a few questions to you.” The moment that God
revealed Himself, Job changed his language. He saw his own vileness, and
God’s purity. He said, “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but
now mine eye seeth Thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust
and ashes.”
The same thing is seen in the cases of those who came to our Lord in the
days of His flesh; those who came aright, seeking and obtaining the
blessing, manifested a lively sense of His infinite superiority to
themselves. The centurion, of whom we read in the eighth of Matthew,
said: “Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof;”
Jairus “worshipped Him,” as he presented his request; the leper, in the
Gospel of Mark, came “kneeling down to Him;” the Syrophenician woman
“came and fell at His feet;” the man full of leprosy “seeing Jesus, fell on
his face.” So, too the beloved disciple, speaking of the feeling they had
concerning Him when they were abiding with Him as their Lord, said: “We
beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of
grace and truth.” However intimate their companionship, and tender their
love, they reverenced as much as they communed, and adored as much as
they loved.​
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We may say of every act of prayer as George Herbert says of public
worship:​
“When once thy foot enters the church, be bare;
God is more than thou; for thou art there
Only by His permission. Then beware,
And make thyself all reverence and fear.
Kneeling ne’er spoiled silk stocking; quit thy state.
All equal are within the Church’s gate.”​
The wise man says: “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God,
and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools; for they
consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not
thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven,
and thou upon earth — therefore let thy words be few.”
If we are struggling to live a higher life, and to know something of God’s
holiness and purity, what we need is to be brought into contact with Him,
that He may reveal Himself. Then we shall take our place before Him as
those men of old were constrained to do. We shall hallow His Name — as
the Master taught His disciples, when He said, “Hallowed be Thy Name.”
When I think of the irreverence of the present time, it seems to me that we
have fallen on evil days.
Let us, as Christians, when we draw near to God in prayer, give Him His
right place. “Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably,
with reverence and Godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.”​
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WIGHT L. MOODY COLLECTION​

Bible Characters ​
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• The Home Work • Prevailing Prayer • Secret Power •​

Twelve Select Sermons • The Way To God • Wondrous Love
 
CHAPTER III.​
CONFESSION.​
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nother element in true prayer is Confession. I do not want Christian
friends to think that I am talking to the unsaved. I think we, as Christians,
have a good many sins to confess.
If you go back to the Scripture records, you will find that the men who
lived nearest to God, and had most power with Him, were those who
confessed their sins and failures. Daniel, as we have seen, confessed his
sins and those of his people. Yet there is nothing recorded against Daniel.
He was one of the best men then on the face of the earth, yet was his
confession of sin one of the deepest and most humble on record. Brooks,
referring to Daniel’s confession, says: “In these words you have seven
circumstances that Daniel useth in confessing of his and the people’s sins;
and all to heighten and aggravate them. First, ‘We have sinned;’ secondly,
‘We have committed iniquity;’ thirdly, ‘We have done wickedly; fourthly,
‘We have rebelled against thee;’ fifthly, ‘We have departed from Thy
precepts;’ sixthly, ‘We have not hearkened unto Thy servants;’ seventhly,
‘Nor our princes, nor all the people of the land.’ These seven aggravations
which Daniel reckons up in his confession are worthy our most serious
consideration.”
Job was no doubt a holy man, a mighty prince, yet he had to fall in the
dust and confess his sins. So you will find it all through the Scriptures.
When Isaiah saw the purity and holiness of God, he beheld himself in his
true light, and he exclaimed, “Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a
man of unclean lips!”
I firmly believe that the Church of God will have to confess her own sins,
before there can be any great work of grace. There must be a deeper work
among God’s believing people. I sometimes think it is about time to give
up preaching to the ungodly, and preach to those who profess to be​

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Christians. If we had a higher standard of life in the Church of God, there
would be thousands more flocking into the Kingdom. So it was in the past;
when God’s believing children turned away from their sins and their idols,
the fear of God fell upon the people round about. Take up the history of
Israel, and you will find that when they put away their strange gods, God
visited the nation, and there came a mighty work of grace.
What we want in these days is a true and deep revival in the Church of
God. I have little sympathy with the idea that God is going to reach the
masses by a cold and formal church. The judgment of God must begin with
us. You notice that when Daniel got that wonderful answer to prayer
recorded in the ninth chapter, he was confessing his sin. That is one of the
best chapters on prayer in the whole Bible.
We read: “While I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin, and
the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the
Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; yea, while I was speaking
in my prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the
beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the
evening oblation. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O
Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.”
So also when Job was confessing his sin, God turned his captivity and
heard his prayer. God will hear our prayer and turn our captivity when we
take our true place before Him, and confess and forsake our transgressions.
It was when Isaiah cried out before the Lord, “I am undone,” that the
blessing came; the live coal was taken from the altar and put upon his lips;
and he went out to write one of the most wonderful books the world has
ever seen. What a blessing it has been to the church!
It was when David said, “I have sinned!” that God dealt in mercy with
him. “I acknowledge my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I
said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest
the iniquity of my sin.” Notice how David made a very similar confession
to that of the prodigal in the fifteenth of Luke: “I acknowledge my
transgressions; and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee, Thee only,
have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight!” There is no difference​
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between the king and the beggar when the Spirit of God comes into the
heart and convicts of sin.
Richard Sibbes quaintly says of confession: “This is the way to give glory
to God: when we have laid open our souls to God, and laid as much
against ourselves as the devil could do that way, for let us think what the
devil would lay to our charge at the hour of death and the day of judgment.
He would lay hard to our charge this and that — let us accuse ourselves as
he would, and as he will ere long. The more we accuse and judge ourselves,
and set up a tribunal in our hearts, certainly there will follow an incredible
ease. Jonah was cast into the sea, and there was an ease in the ship; Achan
was stoned, and the plague was stayed. Out with Jonah, out with Achan;
and there will follow ease and quiet in the soul presently. Conscience will
receive wonderful ease.
“It must needs be so; for when God is honored, conscience is purified.
God is honored by confession of sin every way. It honors His
omniscience, that He is all seeing; that He sees our sins and searches our
hearts — our secrets are not hid from Him. It honors His power. What
makes us confess our sins, but that we are afraid of His power, lest He
should execute it? And what makes us confess our sins, but that we know
there is mercy with Him that He may be feared, and that there is pardon
for sin? We would not confess our sins else. With men it is, Confess, and
have execution; but with God, Confess, and have mercy. It is His own
protestation. We should never lay open our sins but for mercy. So it
honors God; and when He is honored, He honors the soul with inward
peace and tranquillity.”
Old Thomas Fuller says: “Man’s owning his weakness is the only stock
for God thereon to graft the grace of His assistance.”
Confession implies humility, and this, in God’s sight, is of great price.
A farmer went with his son into a wheat field, to see if it was ready for the
harvest. “See, father,” exclaimed the boy, “how straight these stems hold
up their heads! They must be the best ones. Those that hang their heads
down, I am sure cannot be good for much.” The farmer plucked a stalk of​
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each kind and said: “See here, foolish child! This stalk that stood so
straight is light-headed, and almost good for nothing; while this that hung
its head, so modestly is full of the most beautiful grain.”
Outspokenness is needful and powerful, both with God and man. We need
to be honest and frank with ourselves. A soldier said in a revival meeting:
“My fellow soldiers, I am not excited; I am ​
convinced — that is all. I feel
that I ought to be a Christian; that I ought to say so, to tell you so, and to
ask you to come with me; and now if there is a call for sinners seeking
Christ to come forward, I for one shall go — not to make a show, for I
have nothing but sin to show. I do not go because I want to — I would
rather keep my seat; but going will be telling the truth. I ought to be a
Christian, I want to be a Christian; and going forward for prayers is just
telling the truth about it.” More than a score went with him.
Speaking of Pharaoh’s words, “Entreat the Lord that He may take away
the frogs from me,” Mr. Spurgeon says: “A fatal flaw is manifest in that
prayer. It contains no confession of sin. He says not, ‘I have rebelled
against the Lord; entreat that I may find forgiveness!’ Nothing of the kind;
he loves sin as much as ever. A prayer without penitence is a prayer
without acceptance. If no tear has fallen upon it, it is withered. Thou must
come to God as a sinner through a Savior, but by no other way. He who
comes to God like the Pharisee, with, ‘God, I thank Thee that I am not as
other men are,’ never draws near to God at all; but he who cries, ‘God be
merciful to me a sinner,’ has come to God by the way which God has
Himself appointed. There must be confession of sin before God, or our
prayer is faulty.”
If this confession of sin is deep among believers, it will be so among the
ungodly also. I never knew it to fail. I am now anxious that God should
revive His work in the hearts of His children, so that we may see the
exceeding sinfulness of sin. There are a great many fathers and mothers
who are anxious for the conversion of their children. I have had as many as
fifty messages from parents come to me within a single week, wondering
why their children are not saved, and asking prayer for them. I venture to
say that, as a rule, the fault lies at our own door. There may be something
in our life that stands in the way. It may be there is some secret sin that​

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keeps back the blessing. David lived in the awful sin into which he fell for
many months before Nathan made his appearance. Let us pray God to
come into our hearts, and make His power felt. If it is a right eye, let us
pluck it out; if it is a right hand, let us cut it off; that we may have power
with God and with man.
Why is it that so many of our children are wandering into the drinking
saloons, and drifting away into infidelity — going down to a dishonored
grave? There seems to be very little power in the Christianity of the
present time. Many Godly parents find that their children are going
astray. Does it arise from some secret sin clinging around the heart? There
is a passage of God’s Word that is often quoted, but in ninety-nine cases
out of a hundred those who quote it stop at the wrong place. In the
fifty-ninth of Isaiah we read: “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened,
that it cannot save, neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear.” There they
stop. Of course God’s hand is not shortened, and His ear is not heavy; but
we ought to read the next verse: “Your iniquities have separated between
you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will
not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with
iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered
perverseness.” As Matthew Henry says, “It was owing to themselves —
they stood in their own light, they shut their own door. God was coming
toward them in the way of mercy, and they hindered Him. ‘​
Your iniquities
have kept good things from you.’”
Bear in mind that if we are regarding iniquity in our hearts, or living on a
mere empty profession, we have no claim to expect that our prayers will
be answered. There is not one solitary promise for us. I sometimes tremble
when I hear people quote promises, and say that God is bound to fulfill
those promises to them, when all the time there is something in their own
lives which they are not willing to give up. It is well for us to search our
hearts, and find out why it is that our prayers are not answered.
That is a very solemn passage in Isaiah:
“Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of
our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of​

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your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt offerings of
rams, and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks,
or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to speak before Me, who hath
required this at your hand, to tread My courts? Bring no more vain
oblations; incense is an abomination unto Me; the new moons and
Sabbaths the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with — it is iniquity,
even the solemn meeting.”
“Even the solemn meeting!” — think of that. If God does not get our heart
services, He will have none of it; it is an abomination to Him.
“Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hateth; they are a
trouble unto Me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth
your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many
prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you
clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes, cease to do
evil, learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the
fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together,
saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as
snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
Again we read in Proverbs: “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the
law, even his prayer shall be abomination.” Think of that! It may shock
some of us to think that our prayers are an abomination to God, yet if any
are living in known sin, this is what God’s Word says about them. If we
are not willing to turn from sin and obey God’s law, we have no right to
expect that He will answer our prayers. Unconfessed sin is unforgiven sin,
and unforgiveng sin is the darkest, foulest thing on this sin-cursed earth.
You cannot find a case in the Bible where a man has been honest in dealing
with sin, but God has been honest with him and blessed him. The prayer
of the humble and the contrite heart is a delight to God. There is no sound
that goes up from this sin cursed earth so sweet to His ear as the prayer of
the man who is walking uprightly.
Let me call attention to that prayer of David, in which he says: “Search
me, O, God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts, and see
if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” I​
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wish all my readers would commit these verses to memory. If we should
all honestly make this prayer once every day there would be a good deal of
change in our lives. “​
Search ME:” — not my neighbor. It is so easy to
pray for other people, but so hard to get home to ourselves. I am afraid
that we who are busy in the Lord’s work, are very often in danger of
neglecting our vineyard. In this Psalm, David got home to himself. There is
a difference between God searching me and my searching myself. I may
search my heart, and pronounce it all right, but when God searches me as
with a lighted candle, a good many things will come to light that perhaps I
knew nothing about.
“Try me.” David was tried when he fell by taking his eye off from the God
of his father Abraham. “Know my thoughts.” God looks at the thoughts.
Are our thoughts pure? Have we in our hearts thoughts against God or
against His people — against any one in the world? If we have, we are not
right in the sight of God. Oh, may God search us, every one! I do not
know any better prayer that we can make than this prayer of David. One
of the most solemn things in the Scripture history is that when holy men
— better men than we are — were tested and tried, they were found to be
as weak as water away from God. Let us be sure that we are right. Isaac
Ambrose, in his work on “Self Trial,” has the following pithy words:
“Now and then propose we to our hearts these two questions:
1. ‘Heart, how dost thou?’ — a few words, but a very serious question.
You know this is the first question and the first salute that we use to
one another — How do you do? I would to God we sometimes thus
spoke to our hearts: ‘Heart, how dost thou? How is it with thee for
thy spiritual state?’
2. ‘Heart, what wilt thou do?’ or, ‘Heart, what dost thou think will
become of thee and me?’ — as that dying Roman once said: ‘Poor,
wretched, miserable soul, whither art thou and I going — and what will
become of thee, when thou and I shall part?’
“This very thing does Moses propose to Israel, though in other terms,
‘Oh that they would consider their latter end!’ — and oh that we would
put this question constantly to our hearts, to consider and debate upon!
‘Commune with your own hearts,’ said David; that is debate the matter
betwixt you and your hearts to the very utmost. Let your hearts be so put​

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to it in communing with them, as that they may speak their very bottom.
Commune — or hold a serious communication and clear intelligence and
acquaintance — with your own hearts.
“It was the confession of a divine, sensible of his neglect, and especially of
the difficulty of this duty: “I have lived,” said he, “forty years and
somewhat more, and carried my heart in my bosom all this while, and yet
my heart and I are as great strangers, and as utterly unacquainted, as if we
had never come near one another. Nay, I know not my heart; I have
forgotten my heart. Alas! alas! that I could be grieved at the very heart,
that my poor heart and I have been so unacquainted! We are fallen into an
Athenian age, spending our time in nothing more than in telling or hearing
news. How go things here? How there? How in one place? How in
another? But who is there that is inquisitive? How are things with my
poor heart? Weigh but in the balance of a serious consideration, what time
we have spent in this duty, and what time otherwise; and for many scores
and hundreds of hours or days that we owe to our hearts in this duty, can
we write fifty? Or where there should have been fifty vessels full of this
duty, can we find twenty, or ten? Oh, the days, months, years, we bestow
upon sin, vanity, the affairs of this world, while we afford not a minute in
converse with our own hearts concerning their case!”
If there is anything in our lives that is wrong, let us ask God to show it to
us. Have we been selfish? Have we been more jealous of our own
reputation than of the honor of God? Elijah thought he was very jealous
for the honor of God; but it turned out that it was his own honor after all
— self was really at the bottom of it. One of the saddest things, I think,
that Christ had to meet with in His disciples was this very thing; there
was a constant struggle between them as to who should be the greatest,
instead of each one taking the humblest place and being least in his own
estimation.
We are told in proof of this, that “He came to Capernaum; and being in the
house He asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by
the way? But they held their peace, for by the way they had disputed
among themselves, who should be the greatest. And He sat down, and
called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the​
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same shall be the last of all, and servant of all. And He took a child, and set
him in the midst of them; and when He had taken him in His arms, He said
unto them, Whosoever shall receive one of such children in My name,
receiveth Me; and whosoever shall receive Me, receiveth not Me, but Him
that sent Me.”
Soon after “James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto Him, saying,
Master, we would that Thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall
desire. And He said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you?
They said unto Him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on Thy right
hand, and the other on Thy left hand, in Thy glory. But Jesus said unto
them, Ye know not what ye ask; can ye drink of the cup that I drink of
and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptize with? And they said
unto Him, We can. And Jesus said unto them, Ye shall indeed drink of the
cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall
ye be baptized; but to sit on My right hand and on My left hand is not
Mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared. And
when the ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with James and
John. But Jesus called them to Him, — and saith unto them: Ye know that
they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over
them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not
be among you; but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your
minister; and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.
For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister,
and to give His life a ransom for many.”
The latter words were spoken in the third year of His ministry. Three
years the disciples had been with Him; they had listened to the words that
fell from His lips; yet they had failed to learn this lesson of humility. The
most humiliating thing that happened among the chosen twelve occurred
on the night of our Lord’s betrayal, when Judas sold Him, and Peter
denied Him. If there was any place where there should have been an
absence of these thoughts, it was at the Supper table. Yet we find that
when Christ instituted that blessed memorial there was a debate going on
among His disciples who should be the greatest. Think of that — right
under the Cross, when the Master was “exceeding sorrowful, even unto​
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death;” was already tasting the bitterness of Calvary, and the horrors of
that dark hour were gathering upon His soul.
I think if God searches us, we will find a good many things in our lives for
us to confess. If we are tried and tested by God’s law, there will be many,
many things that will have to be changed. I ask again: Are we selfish or
jealous? Are we willing to hear of others being used of God more than we
are? Are our Methodist friends willing to hear of a great revival of God’s
work among the Baptists? Would it rejoice their souls to hear of such
efforts being blessed? Are Baptists willing to hear of a reviving of God’s
work in the Methodist, Congregational, or other churches? If we are full of
narrow, party and sectarian feelings, there will be many things to be laid
aside. Let us pray to God to search us, and try us, and see if there be any
evil way in us. If these holy and good men felt that they were faulty,
should we not tremble, and endeavor to find out if there is anything in our
lives that God would have us get rid of?
Once again, let me call your attention to the prayer of David contained in
the fifty-first Psalm. A friend of mine told me some years ago that he
repeated this prayer as his own every week. I think it would be a good
thing if we offered up these petitions frequently; let them go right up from
our hearts. If we have been proud, or irritable, or lacking in patience, shall
we not at once confess it? Is it not time that we began at home, and got our
lives straightened out? See how quickly the ungodly will then begin to
inquire the way of life! Let those of us who are parents set our own
houses in order, and be filled with Christ’s Spirit; then it will not be long
before our children will be inquiring what they must do to get the same
Spirit. I believe that today, by its lukewarmness and formality, the
Christian Church is making more infidels than all the books that infidels
ever wrote. I do not fear infidel lectures half so much as the cold and dead
formalism in the professing church at the present time. One prayer
meeting like that the disciples had on the day of Pentecost, would shake
the whole infidel fraternity.
What we want is to get hold of God in prayer. You are not going to reach
the masses by great sermons. We want to “move the Arm that moves the
world.” To do that, we must be clear and right before God.” For if our​
30​
heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things,
Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have confidence toward God;
and whatsoever we ask we receive of Him because we keep His​
commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight
 
Confession.
————​
“No, not despairingly
Come I to Thee;
No, not distrustingly
Bend I the knee;
Sin hath gone over me,
Yet is this still my plea,
Jesus hath died.
“Ah, mine iniquity
Crimson has been;
Infinite, infinite,
Sin upon sin;
Sin of not loving Thee,
Sin of not trusting Thee.
Infinite Sin.
“Lord, I confess to Thee
Sadly my sin;
All I am, tell I Thee,
All I have been.
Purge Thou my sin away,
Wash Thou my soul this day;
Lord, make me clean!”​
— Dr. H. Bonar.
 
CHAPTER 2​
THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS​
“There is none righteous, no not one.” Romans 3:10.​
Here we again face the necessity of studying the context to enable us to
understand properly the meaning of a verse. To take out this segment of
the text and declare that there is none righteous, no, not one, will at once
entangle a person in such a snarl of contradiction that he will be hopelessly
unable to extricate himself.
The word of God properly understood does not contradict itself. When
we find some statement which is an apparent discrepancy, which flies in
the face of the general tenor of the Scriptures, we should neither expose
oar ignorance in the wrong use of it, nor practice wrong in “handling the
word of God deceitfully.”
If, believing that it really means that there is none righteous in the world,
we would place this portion of the text, “There is none righteous, no, not
one,” alongside of the practical teaching of God’s word, we would at once
find ourselves in a dilemma, and the odds would be against us.
Let us place by the side of it a few verses like the following:​
“Little children, let no man deceive you; he that doeth
righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous.” I John 3:7.​
It would seem from this text that John was warning them against those
who claimed there were none righteous, declaring that “he that doeth
righteousness is righteous.”​
“If ye know that lie is righteous, ye know that every one that
doeth righteousness is born of Him.” I John 2:29.
“And they (Zacharias and Elizabeth) were both righteous, walking
in all the commandments and ordinances -of the Lord blameless.”
Luke 1:6.​
10​
“The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
James 5:6.
“For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous
men have -desired to see those things which ye ‘see, and have not
seen them.” Matthew 13:17.​
Thus, we find that instead of there being none righteous, no, not one, the
Word shows the number to be “many.”
The Scriptures abound both in precept and in examples of righteousness.
If the atonement of Jesus cannot make men righteous, we ask, What can it
do? Our own righteousness, we confess, is “filthy rags,” and Jesus said,​
“Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter Into the kingdom of
heaven.” Matthew 5:20.​
We must have the inwrought righteousness of Christ. Not a robe simply,
that covers our unrighteousness, leaving us sinful and unholy, but His
righteousness imparted to us.​
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I John 1:9.​
If all unrighteousness is cleansed away, then certainly there is
righteousness in its place. If the atonement of Christ cannot get down as
deep as sin has gone, it must be a failure. But who would say that Christ
made a failure in His atonement?
There is so much ignorance abroad in the land. So many seem to think that
it makes very little difference if they do “sin a little.” They claim that one
cannot help sinning some every day in word, thought and deed. They
forget, or else are awful ignorant, that the Word is extremely prohibitory
on that line. Hear the Word of the Lord:​
“Stand in awe and sin not.” Psalm 4:4.
“Awake to righteousness and sin not.” 1 Corinthians 15:34.
“Go and sin no more?” John 8:11.​
11​
“How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ?”-
Romans 6:2.
“He that committeth sin is of the devil.” I John 3:8.
“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin”-1 John 3:9.
“Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not.” I. John 3:6.
“The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Ezekiel 4:18.​
We fail to see how anybody can read such commands, warnings and
assertions, and then fly in the face of them all and think that sin is of little
consequence. Beware! “Be sure your sin will find you out.” — Numbers
32:23. One would better trifle with chain lightning than with sin. In view
of the coming judgment, when the hearts of men Will be weighed in the
balances of divine justice, when sin will be sized up in its awful blackness
and heinousness, let us see to it that none of the accursed thing be found
upon our souls.
Sin and salvation are incompatible. They will not mix any more than oil
and water. Saints cannot be sinners at the same time. One cannot live in
the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world simultaneously. We
have read of “natural law in the spiritual world.” The property of
impenetrability obtains in the spiritual realm. Two bodies cannot occupy
the same space at the same time. Neither can one body be in two places at
the same time. One cannot be dwelling in the light of God and also be in
darkness. lie cannot be in the service of Christ and simultaneously in the
service of sin.​
“Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for lie shall
save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21.​
Not saved in one’s sins, but from them. What is a sinner? Let us see. A liar
is one who lies; a deceiver is one who deceives; a murderer is one who
murders; a sinner must be one who sins. What is a Christian? A
Mohammedan is a follower of Mohammed; a Confucianist is a follower of
Confucius; a Christian is a follower of Christ. How did Christ act? He
“was holy, .harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners.” — Hebrews
7:26. “As He is, so are we in this world.” — I John 4:17. Are we
Christians? Are we followers of the meek and lowly Jesus? Are we​
12​
imitators of that heavenly example? To say that one is a Christian and yet
a sinner is about as ridiculous Os to say that one is a truthful liar, an
honest thief, an intelligent idiot, a healthy invalid, a living corpse, or a holy
devil.
We are persuaded, though, that many times, when there is dispute on
these questions, there is a greater difference in terms than in actual belief.
In the Old Testament we find sins of ignorance mentioned together with
the necessary offering for such. They were not classed with willful
transgressions, and were dealt with in another manner. In the same sense
may we speak of the same now, though the expression, “sins of
ignorance,” is not mentioned in the New Testament. We will always be
liable and subject to mistakes, blunders and infirmities. We will do things
ignorantly, which we will see afterwards, and for which we will be sorry.
Yet these mistakes and blunders are not classed in the catalogue of sins. If
they are, then everybody is a sinner, no matter what state of grace he has
reached. They are all dead, for “the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” They
are not abiding in Him, for “he that abideth in Him sinneth not.” They
should not profess to be born again, for “whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin.” It would make the Word of God irreconcilably
contradictory. If those who claim to be Christians, and yet sinners, mean
by sin, those things done in ignorance, we can accept their experience, but
they should define themselves better. On the other hand, if they mean
known sin, voluntary, willful transgression, then we must believe them to
be misguided and deceived. A thousand mistakes, or, to use the Old
Testament expression, sins of ignorance, are compatible with the Christian
life, but not any known, voluntary sin. The former will not break the
union with Christ, but the latter severs the connection. Perhaps some
mean that they commit known sin daily, but not voluntary sin. They have
a quick temper, or some other weakness, which gets the advantage of them
so suddenly that they are overcome before they think. They know it is
wrong, but it is not voluntary. It is not with their consent, for they much
prefer not to be overcome. They go at once to the Lord and ask pardon,
but are overcome again and again the same Way. Thus, they say they are
Christians, but sin every day. Suppose they failed, after one of those
spells, to find pardon , would they not remain in the dark?​
13​
Certainly this is an up-and-down experience. We could not say an up-anddown
Christian life, but rather an up-Christian and down-sinner life.
Thank God there is a better way of going than this. God is able and willing
to take the “down” element out of us. He proposes so to purify the heart
that there will be no uprisings of unholy tempers in it.
We will take up the context under consideration and see if it is a fair
description of a real Christian experience. If the portion, “there is none
righteous,” applies to the Christian, then certainly the context applies to
the Christian also. We will take them in their order.
“There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after
God.” If, then, there is none righteous, then none of them
understand or seek after God.
“They are all gone out of the way, they are together become
unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” We must
abide by the context; so, all Christians are gone out of the way, are
unprofitable, and none of them do good, no, not one.
“Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have
used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips.” What a
description of a Christian! His mouth an open -sepulcher, using
deceit with his tongue, and having the poison of asps under his
lips.
“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” And this a
Christian!
“Their feet are swift to shed blood.” A dangerous class of people,
that. All this applies to the Christian, if the first part does.
“Destruction and misery are in all their ways.” All the ways of a
Christian are destruction, and their lives are filled with misery.
This is certainly a very dark picture, and not much in it to lure one
on to embrace it.
“And the way of peace have they not known.” Take the medicine,
brother, if you claim that there is none righteous. There is no peace
then in the Christian’s heart or life. He has never known such a
thing.​
14​
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.” With a reckless,
fearless, don’t-care manner, he proceeds on the evil tenor of his
way. All this applying to the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who, that professes to be a Christian, is willing to lay claim to such a
catalogue of sins as his experience? If the first statement, “there is none
righteous,” applies to him, then all the rest apply to him also, for the
subject is not changed until we come to the close of the clause, “there is no
fear of God before their eyes.”
A little further on it says, “For there is no difference, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God.” So, we see that it is simply showing
forth man’s condition in his unregenerate or sinful state.
Coming back to the beginning of this description, we find these words,
“As it is ‘written,” and then follows that very accommodative text, with
which so many have allowed the devil to morphine them. “It is written.”
Where is it written? These statements are taken from the 14th and 53d
Psalms, and the 59th chapter of Isaiah. In all of these places the context
makes it plain that the reference is to the unregenerate people. Especially
does Isaiah make this plain. He says, “But your iniquities have separated
between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you,
that He will not hear.” Then follows the place where it is written, as we
see in Romans, 3d chapter. But that this is not a necessary experience,
incapable of being overcome, the verse just preceding the one quoted from
Isaiah says, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save;
neither His ear heavy, that He will not hear.”
This cuts off all escape, and leaves one without any excuse for pleading for
unrighteousness. This catalogue of sine is arrayed against them because
they have allowed sin to come in between them and God. But He declares
that His hand is not too short to save nor His ear too deaf to hear.
The very fact that David, Isaiah and Paul all use this language to illustrate
the sinner’s life, proves that his heart is just the same, no matter when and
where you find it. All the way down the ages it is just the same. There
never was and never will he any improvement till it is improved by the
cleansing blood of Jesus. The world is not growing any better, only as
hearts come in contact with Him that is “mighty to save.”​
15​
Dear reader, do not hide behind some refuge that will not stand the test of
the judgment day. Beware how you plead for sin, lest you may not be able​
to pass muster on that great day of days.
 
Kai< ejndusa>menoi to<n qw>raka th~v dikaiosu>nhv, and having put on
the breastplate of righteousness. The qw>rax was the "armor covering the
body from the neck to the thighs, consisting of two parts, one covering the
front and the other the back." A warrior without his qw>rax was naked,
exposed to every thrust of his enemy, and even to every casual dart. In
such a state flight or death is inevitable. What is that righteousness, which
in the spiritual armor answers to the cuirass? Many say it is our own
righteousness, integrity, or rectitude of mind. But this is no protection. It
cannot resist the accusations of conscience, the whispers of despondency,
the power of temptation, much less the severity of the law, or the assaults
of Satan. What Paul desired for himself was not to have on his own
righteousness, but the righteousness which is of God by faith; Philemon
3:8, 9. And this, doubtless, is the righteousness which he here urges
believers to put on as a breastplate. It is an infinitely perfect
righteousness, consisting in the obedience and sufferings of the Son of
God, which satisfies all the demands of the divine law and justice; and
which is a sure defense against all assaults whether from within or from
without. As in no case in this connection does the apostle refer to any
merely moral virtue as constituting the armor of the Christian, so neither
does he here. This is the less probable, inasmuch as righteousness in the
subjective sense, is included in the idea expressed by the word truth in the
preceding clause. It is the spirit of the context which determines the
meaning to be put on the terms here used. For although righteousness is
used so frequently by the apostle for the righteousness of God by faith,
yet in itself it may of course express personal rectitude or justice. In Isaiah
59:17, Jehovah is described as putting "on righteousness as a breastplate,
and a helmet of salvation on his head;" as in Isaiah 11:5, it is said of the
Messiah, "righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the
girdle of his reins."
V. 15. In ancient warfare which was in a large measure carried on by
hand-to-hand combats, swiftness of foot was one of the most important
qualifications for a good soldier. To this the apostle refers when he exhorts
his readers to have their feet shod, ejn eJtoimasi>a| tou~ eujaggeli>ou th~v
eijrh>nhv, with the preparation of the gospel of peace. According to one
explanation eujaggeli>ou is the genitive of apposition, and the Gospel is
either that the Gospel is something firm on which we can rest our
confidence; or it is something that gives alacrity, adding as it were wings to
the feet. Others take eujaggeli>ou as the genitive of the object, and
eJtoimasi>a for readiness or alacrity. The sense would then be, ‘Your feet
shod with alacrity for the Gospel,’ i.e. for its defense or propagation. The
simplest interpretation and that best suited to the context, is that
eujaggeli>ou is the genitive of the source, and the sense is, ‘Your feet shod
with the alacrity which the Gospel of peace gives.’ As the Gospel secures
our peace with God, and gives the assurance of his favor, it produces that
joyful alacrity of mind which is essential to success in the spiritual
the eJtoimasi>a with which the Christian is to be shod. Then the idea is
 
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