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Why do we need to be saved? What are we saved from?

This is a small set of four tracts that join together to explain many things that most denominations with all of their seminaries and Bible schools have forgotten, or perhaps have never known!

The best kept Secret in the Church

These are very important questions, However I believe that most people who have gone to Church all of their lives do not know the correct answer to either of these questions. Read on and find out if you know the correct answers.

Let us start where mankind started in the Garden of Eden. Adam was created by God after God's own Image, and in His own Likeness, a living reflection of the Divine Nature; God brought forth His own nature in Adam in a finite way.

After God created Adam, the Lord said, “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” Genesis 1:31

This is how Adam started out, but he then broke the only commandment that God had given him, he took of the forbidden fruit that Eve gave him. Eve was deceived Adam was not, he knew it was wrong! This very interestingly was the only commandment that God had given to them up to that time, and they broke it! “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die." Genesis 3:16-17 Notice the reason God gave to them for not eating of the forbidden tree, the tree was forbidden because it would cause them to die to the presence of God's Divine Spirit, it was not a physical death, but a spiritual death, a death from the Divine essence of God's Spirit, and this is exactly what happened to them! In that spiritual death Adam and Eve lost all of the Divine presence and fruit of God's Spirit. From this point on, they were incapable of living in the capacity, nor for the purpose that God intended. God set about to remedy this problem, you see God had enough devils, He wanted more Angels, He created Adam to bring forth a new people with Heavenly, Not Demonic attributes!

Yes, this was Adam's fall, he fell from being a Divine creature, God could no longer say about His creation “behold, it was very good.” Something happened, man had died to the Divine presence of God, he was no longer “like God, nor in God's own likeness, a living, finite reflection of the Divine Nature. This was his fall, and ours as well since we were in Adam as a seed when he fell.

Knowing all of this we can now readily understand what Jesus meant in John 3:3-7

“Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he? Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you,

`You must be born again.”

Jesus said, “We must be born again,” He said this because we had lost the Divine presence and likeness of God in our lives! When Adam partook of the tree of knowledge of good and evil he went into self will and out of God's will. Self-will is in reality selfishness, God is love. His will is always the will of loving others. This is His very makeup because GOD IS LOVE!

The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1John 4:8

Again in John 15:5 Jesus told us a very important secret, He said at the end of that verse

“Apart from Me you can do nothing”

Now do you know why you and I can do nothing apart from Him, it is because only God is love, apart from love we can only fulfill the lust of the flesh, and the selfishness of our fallen nature and thus live in the pride of life.

The necessity of our new birth is found in this, our having died to the Divine presence of God in Adam. We now know what is wrong with the unregenerate man, so it is not difficult to figure out what we need to have fixed in our lives in order to be redeemed. Nothing but the new birth of God's Divine Spirit coming to life in us again as it was in Adam before the fall, can fix our problem.

Now how can this come about? By listening to Jesus in John 3:3-7, but you may say I have believed on Jesus as my Lord and Savior, this is well and good, but did you take the advice He gave in Luke 9:23

"If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”

You see our Savior knows exactly what is wrong with us, and how to fix it! Why did He command us to deny ourselves? It is because every son of Adam is in the service of pride and self, no matter what he is doing, until a humility that comes only from heaven becomes his redeemer. Because every unregenerate son of Adam has life and death in his own choice, not by any natural power of taking that which he wills, but by a full freedom, either of leaving and trusting himself to the redeeming operation of God which is eternal life, or of acting according to his own will and power in flesh and blood, which is eternal death.

The Apostle Paul said . . .

Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 1 Tim 6:12.

The only one who fights this “good fight” is the one whose strife is with his own self-idolatrous nature, which we have received from Adam. We fight the good fight of faith so that our old nature may be brought to death by the supernatural humility of Christ. Did not Jesus say

"Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart;” Mat. 11:29.

Here Jesus said “Learn of Me, for I am meek, and lowly of heart." What light we have here, for those that love the light! Self is the whole evil of fallen nature; self-denial is our capacity of being saved; humility (Jesus) is our savior. This is truly our fight, that our very life, our (old nature), must be denied, for only then can we learn of Him, and His humility. You must give up all that you are, and all that you have from fallen Adam, for all that you are, and have, from him is that life of flesh and blood which cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

For without a real birth of this Divine love in the essence of your soul, you may know all about the Bible and the Lord, be as learned and polite as you can, but still, your heart is only the fallen heart of Adam, and your knowledge of the kingdom of God will be of the same nature of that which the Pharisees had. For everything is self-love self-seeking, and self-esteem, but that which love does. If love is not the breath of your life, the Spirit that forms and governs everything that proceeds from you, you are truly broken off from the works of God; you are without God, and your name, and nature, and works, can have no other name, or nature, but that which is called pride, wrath, envy, hypocrisy, hatred, revenge, and self-exaltation, under the power of Satan in his kingdom of darkness, regardless of how much you go to Church, and pretend to be Holy.

The soul is only as cleansed from its corruption, purified and delivered from the power of sin, as it has renounced all of its own will, and its own desire, to have nothing, receive nothing, and be nothing, but what the will of God chooses it to be, or have. For without this new birth, which is the same thing as saying, without being Divinely inspired continually, there is no difference between the Christian and the infidel. Whether the uninspired, unregenerate son of Adam is in the Church, or out of the Church, he is still that child of this world, another “fallen Adam,” a mere natural man, to whom the things of the Spirit of God are only foolishness. You must understand and learn this; and when you do you will posses all of the theology that you need to have, and you will have all the benefit of a very profound education. Old Adam with all his ignorance is cast out; and when Christ's humility is received, then you have the very mind of Christ, and the very thing that can bring you forth as a son of God. We must not ever allow self to rise up again, or love worldly things.

Every sin that can be named is centered in self, and we can sin no higher, than we can live to self. For self is the fullness of atheism and idolatry, it is nothing else but the creature broken off from God and Christ; it is the power of Satan living and working in us, and the sad continuance of that first turning from God, which was the whole fall, or spiritual death of our first father, Adam. Remember, nothing can enter into heaven, but this life which is born of, and comes from heaven.

The enemies to man's rising out of the fall of Adam, are many. But the one great enemy is called anti-Christ, which in reality is self-exaltation. This is the Devil's birth, and his power, when his throne is set up in our hearts and we go into self-exaltation; but when self-exaltation ceases, the last enemy will be destroyed, and all that came from the pride and death of Adam will be swallowed up in victory.

For this reason it can also be seen, that there is and can be but one true religion for the fallen soul, and that is, dying to self, to nature and creature; and turning with all the will, and desire of the soul to God. And all of this is done by faith! Sacrifices, offerings, prayers, praises, and ceremonies, without this are only sounding brass, and tinkling cymbals. No, zeal, consisten­cy, warmth, or fervor, in the performance of these religious practices, is a real proof of God in the soul; because nature and self-love can do all of this, without God.

Observe modern religion, where is the proof of 2 Corinthians 5:17.

“Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

Most people who profess to being a Christian   Do not possess what they profess!

In most cases it is not their fault, they have been lead into the “Church” by others that do not know or understand the truth of the Christian experience. About now someone might say, this man believes that we can earn our salvation, but, this is silly, what work could a mere fallen mortal do to make him or herself Divine, Holy, or pleasing to God, NOTHING! Salvation is a gift of God not of works. We can no more change our nature from being all selfishness to all love, any more than we can rise and fly by flapping our arms.

God and God alone can put Divine life into us. Today we have fast food, and we think we can have fast conversions. Just a little over a hundred years ago when someone came to the Lord they travailed at the altar, sometimes for hours, this was because they knew that Christians are different from worldly pagan people. This was because of the holy lives and self-sacrificial lives they led. Impenitent sinners knew that they had to forsake this world and the kingdom of self, they knew that Christians were self-sacrificing, and so they would count the cost and spend time on their knees to make sure they had this new life, that in fact they had become “new creatures in Christ” they wouldn't get off of their knees until they had truly believed and forsaken their own self-life. When they rose up from their knees the old things had passed away, and all things had truly become new.

We start out most of the time in a denomination not of our own choosing. Whoever leads us to the Lord, or whatever denomination our parents were in, we become, and that without much thought. The meaning of the word denominational is - “Under the control of a religious denomination.” A denomination is any church organization that holds itself separate from the rest of the Church. This division may be on account of a doctrine, a difference of opinion, or any of many different reasons. The actual meaning of the phrase Denominational principles is A denominational system. - Acceptance or support of such principles or system. - Division into denominations - The meaning of the word “Divisions” is: Being divided. - A difference of opinion; - disagreement - A separation into groups - Or anything that divides; - partitions; boundary - anything separated or distinguished from the whole. (Webster’s College Dictionary)

What does God’s Word have to say on this subject? 1 Corinthians 1:10-14

"Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree, and there be no divisions among you, but you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. "

Please take note of the fact, that this is the first letter to the Corinthian Church. In this letter, in the first chapter, the Apostle Paul addresses the question of divisions (denominations). To God and the Apostle Paul this is a very serious problem! In the fifth chapter of this book 1Corinthians 5:1 the Apostle Paul addresses a different problem

“It is reported commonly [that there is] fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.”

One would think that a problem such as this would be on the top of the list, but to the Lord and the Apostle Paul this problem, however bad, was not as important as the problem of divisions (denominations), for you see the Apostle started off in the first chapter verse ten with the problem of divisions (denominations).

The Apostle Paul orders “That there be no divisions among you.” A denomination is above all things a division of the Church of the living God! Did the Lord think that division was “OK”, No! Divisions (denominations) are a separation of believers, Let the Lord Jesus tell us how the people in the world will recognize His disciples, John 13:35

"By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

If honesty prevails we who have ever had anything to do with a denomination will have to admit that love doesn't cross denominational boundaries very well, not the kind of love God expects from us, “oneness” doesn't cross well either! One distinguishing trait of denominations is an attitude of “our doctrines are correct, the other denominations are a little off” etc.

Remember the birthing place of denominations is division, and divisions are caused by men who do not allow the Spirit of the living God to lead them. In other words self-willed people getting their own way in a matter, and not seeking and submitting to the will of God! Christian brothers and sisters, not able to agree on some point of doctrine or something of even less importance. But instead of seeking the Lord and finding His will in the matter, and becoming of one mind, they let the division become so great that they can no longer even fellowship in the same building! All of this has been said to point out how all of this error has come about.

READ your Bible, start with 1John 2:27

“And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.”

This is another reason why you need God's Holy Spirit, it is God's Spirit that teaches us about all things.

Let this be my excuse to the learned world, for having nothing to do with any schools of wisdom, but the ones where the one and only lesson is Divine love; and the one and only teacher, is the Spirit of God!

I have taken several quotes from our dear Bro. William Law, and here are a few more . . .

The heart is then only broken and contrite, when all its strongholds are broken down, all false coverings taken off, and it sees, with inwardly opened eyes, everything to be bad, false, and rotten, that can, or does proceed from itself.

Don't die without the Divine life in you, because this is a truth, we are in no hell, but what our own natural strength has awakened; we are bound in no chains, but those of own unbending, hardened spirits; we made ourselves such, by our renouncing with all our strength, all meekness, and subjection to God.

An important piece of advice

This advice comes from the Son of God, our one and only Savior, He said . . .

Luke 13:23-24  "And someone said to Him, "Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?" And He said to them,  "Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able."

 

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The Overcoming Life

Many people profess to being a Christian, they read the Bible and see how victorious the believers lived back in Bible times. They read about the martyrs listed in Fox's book of martyrs, and know inwardly that they would not really be able to give up their lives in that way, why is there such a difference today as in times past?

Every book that this sort of professed believer reads, seems to bring the conviction upon them that they aren't like the people that were described in the holy book they were reading. If it's a book about prayer, they know that their prayer life falls very, very short of what is described in the book. If it's a book about witnessing, they realize that they don't have that sort of “luck” when around unbelievers, they don't even know what to say.

Now when I talk about Spiritual books I am not talking about the 'run of the mill' type of books turned out today, I am talking about books written at least before the nineteen hundreds, by Sanctified men.

To understand why we need to be redeemed read the tract called Why do we need to be saved? What are we saved from? This tract goes over the reasons and nature of our salvation. The tract you are now reading shows us how to acquire victory in our walk with Jesus.

Both John the Baptist and Jesus started their ministries with these words, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." The word repent is greatly misunderstood today, in fact, it is rarely used anymore. We are told this word means to 'turn from your sin,' this is a good start but let us understand what Jesus meant when He said repent, to turn away from our sin is to stop sinning. Today this must sound ridiculous to most professing believers, because for years a false Gospel has been preached in main-stream Christianity, but stop we must. We need to see our lives in the same way God sees our lives, because all that which comes from self, and natural reason, however wonderful it appears on the outside, can have no better a nature within, than self-love, self-seeking, self-esteem, and fleshly wisdom, which are those very works of the devil in us, of which Christ came into the world to destroy. (Mat 1:21)

We must understand this, all sin, death, damnation, and hell is nothing else but this kingdom of self, or the various operations of self-love, self-esteem, and self-seeking, which separate our soul from God, and end in eternal death and hell.

We need to be sanctified, but today most people haven't any idea of what it means to be sanctified. Today people believe they are sanctified the very moment they make some half-hearted commitment to God. They believe this because they were told that at the moment they “accepted” Jesus Christ they were automatically sanctified. Let's look at what sanctification really is.

Sanctification is a term frequently used in the Bible. Its simple and primary meaning is to be in a state of consecration to God. To sanctify is to set apart for a holy use. A state of sanctification is a state of consecration. This is plainly both the Old and the New Testament use of the term.

How do we become sanctified, how do we continue to live a life wholly sanctified to God? Adam was wholly sanctified to God when he was first created, but he went into self and out of sanctification when he disobeyed God and ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil. Another name that tree could be called is “The tree of self will!”

The secret

We truly need to see the wickedness of our own hearts, not until we understand how evil and wicked we really are will we turn in disgust from our selfishness and self-will. This is repentance, when we see and hate the wickedness of our own hearts! This is why Jesus said, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” Luke 9:23 One of the first requirements for us to become disciples of Jesus Christ is for us to deny ourselves. To truly deny ourselves we must deny our own thinking, and our reason, for how can a man deny himself, without denying his reason, unless reason is not a part of himself? We must die to ourselves in everything, or we have not denied anything.

This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he said "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." The Devil cannot stop us from entering the Kingdom of God and nether can anyone else, so what causes the tribulation? It is only, and always ourselves, and nothing else.

We want Heaven and the Kingdom of God and to be called a Christian, the tribulation comes in when by necessity we must deny ourselves. You will find great resistance when you try to deny yourself something you really like, when this happens you will see clearly that you have a fallen selfish nature that must be denied at all times.

God wants to reverse something in our lives and the Apostle Paul will show us what it is, Romans 6:17-18 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

Understand this clearly, you will be a slave, either to your fallen nature (old man) or to God. The only thing that we can have a choice in, is who we will be enslaved to, who our master will be! To be enslaved to our old man (old nature) is really to be enslaved to the world. If you would like to know the evil nature and effects of a worldly spirit, it is this; it will always unite you to a worldly, earthly nature, which will cause you to strongly desire the things of this world, that will not, and cannot, satisfy you. On the other hand being enslaved to God will unite us with the Holy Spirit of God and espouse, and unite us to Christ, God, and heaven. This results in us being content regardless of what is going on around us, regardless of what we have, or do not have!

Paul also brings out another behavior that we should imitate, it is found in 1 Corinthians 9:27. But I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified. Paul watched his life, he knew that he was enslaved to God for he said “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.  Peter also was aware of this fact for he said, “Act as free men, and do not use your

freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond slaves of God.” 1 Peter 2:16.

The Victory

The first step in receiving the victorious Christian life is repentance, without truly repenting of being the boss of your own life you will be like the sow, after washing, always returning and wallowing in the mire. Most people when the thought of repenting comes up, think about some great and damning sin that they are under bondage to practice. They tell the Lord that they won't do that anymore, and for the most part they are sincere, tears flowing, heart broken before God's throne, but in a few weeks or days they are having problems with that same sin again!

What is wrong here? It is really very simple, they were sincere but did not look in faith to the God of all power, the God of all grace, and went in their own strength and their own power to conquer the enemy of their soul. You must understand the biggest enemy of our soul is our selfish self, yes just look into the mirror and you will see the real, and powerful enemy of your soul, YOU!

We always fail in doing right because we try to do right with our flesh, and our flesh will always fail. It's like wondering why our chickens keep disappearing, when we have put a fox in charge of the hen house.

Romans 6:5-7 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.

The Apostle Paul is telling us here the same thing that Jesus said in John 3:3-7 You see, in order to be born again, we must give up our first life, we must deny it, we must die to it, or we can't be truly born again.

In 2 Peter 1:4 we are told “For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” We are saved by faith, we must believe the Gospel and all of the promises we find in God's Holy Word! Here is one my favorites. Ezekiel 36:24-30

24) "For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land.

Here the Lord is telling us that He will take us out of the world (nations) and bring us into the Kingdom of God and it will be our land

25) "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

God will cleanse us from all of our filthiness! That word filthiness means sin! But that’s not all, God will remove all of the idols in our life! He promises to do this because He and He alone is our Savior. If God does not deliver us from our sin no one else can.

26) "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."

Then God promises to remove our heart of stone. The Bible uses the word "heart" to refer to man’s will, the place we make our decisions (the decision to obey or disobey God.) Notice here that God refers to a stony heart, this means a stubborn, rebellious will (heart). We won’t stop being rebellious and stubborn on our own, so the God of love removes this rebellious (heart) from us and replaces it with a moldable (heart)

27)"And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances."

And now after heart surgery, we are ready to receive the most precious gift anyone could possibly receive! God’s Spirit. (And I will put My spirit within you.) But God knows that this is still not enough. Look at the next part of this promise. In verse 27 "And cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do [them]."

Yes, God will cause us to walk Holy!

28) "And you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.

God is telling us that we will abide in Him in the Kingdom of God, and we will be called His people.

29)"Moreover, I will save you from all your uncleanness; and I will call for the grain and multiply it, and I will not bring a famine on you.

30) "And I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, that you may not receive again the disgrace of famine among the nations.”

Here God is telling us that He will bless us and not allow any curses to fall upon us. God has committed Himself, by His Holy promises, to cause us to obey Him! What more need we ask of Him. This is the faith part, will you believe God? Will you take Him at His word? Will you place your faith in Him, now, today, this very moment?  Please take note of the fact that God is the one who does all of these things!

Many people after reading this will say to themselves “This is good, yes, this is important, someday I will do this. If this is your response, listen very carefully and you might be able to hear God say .  .  .  .

Thou Fool

2 Corinthians 6:2 "At the acceptable time I listened to you, behold, now is "the acceptable time," behold, now is "the day of salvation."

Hebrews 2:2-3 For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,

Philippians 2:12. So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; Don't put off this decision to resign yourself entirely into the hands of God, this might be the last warning from the Holy Spirit to you!

An important piece of advice

This advice comes from the Son of God, our one and only Savior, He said . . .

Luke 13:23-24 And someone said to Him, "Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?" And He said to them,  "Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

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Works / Faith, The Debate

If you listen to the preachers, or watch “Christian” movies that are considered Evangelical, most of them will instruct you to be careful not to rely on your “good works” to obtain your salvation. This is of course correct and good. But unfortunately they do not go on and tell you that after God sanctifies you He will expect you to be rich in good works.

Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

Jesus said this, it is a command of God; it is one of the reasons that God saves us from our unregenerate state. He wants us to be a light in this very dark world. In order that others can see by our lives that they are not living right, and need something that they do not have – Salvation!

All Christians in the Bible are always referred to as Saints. Yes, you read this correctly I said, “Saints” not sinners. We were all sinners before we were converted, this is what conversion is, going from a state of rebellion to God to a state of obedience to God!

This might sound so strange to you that maybe I ought to include a few Scripture references for this fantastic claim.

Acts 9:13. But Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Thy saints at Jerusalem.

Acts 9:32. Now it came about that as Peter was traveling through all those parts, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda.

Acts 9:41. And he gave her his hand and raised her up; and calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive.

Acts 26:10. "And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them.

Romans 1:7. To all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 15:25. but now, I am going to Jerusalem serving the saints.

There are so many other references that it would take up the rest of this little tract to record them.

No where in the Bible does anyone ever refer to born again, sanctified, Holy Ghost filled believers as sinners!

It has become very popular for preachers and professed believers to refer to one another as sinners. I guess it sounds humble, or perhaps it is in reality a more correct title for most of the people today that profess to being a Christian. Be that as it may, no where in the Bible do we find this being said. Sinners are always impenitent people, that are considered rebellious to God's causes, never people that are in a right way with God!

What is all the fuss about?

We have had an argument going on for many years. The center of this argument is the "works - faith question". It has been believed that there is a difference between a Christian that has works and one who has faith, this is silly. Gospel works are always and only the results of Gospel faith. And you cannot separate one from the other.

The real basis for the contention centers around two fellows:

John Calvin (1509-1564) and James Arminius (1560-1609)

It is most interesting to point out that James Arminius started out as a Calvinist. He believed in what Calvin had taught, but, he had not really looked into Calvin's teachings. His departure from the Calvinistic view of predestination, was brought about by the government of the United Netherlands! He was asked to defend the Calvinistic view of predestination, which at that time he concurred with. He did not to Augustine's teachings as Calvin done, but instead he went directly to God's Word. To James' surprise he found that the Scriptures did not defend Calvin's writings, but instead he discovered the truth about predestination, a truth that would bring about much persecution for him.

Arminius was the ablest exponent of what various other people had already been teaching: that God's predestination of the destiny of individuals is based on God's foreknowledge of the way in which they freely (in the context of prevenient grace) accept or reject Christ.

Arminius's teachings were promoted especially by John Wesley, the Methodists, and also Charles Finney and, in our time, by the denominations which constitute the Christian Holiness Association.

Unfortunately even James missed the deeper truth about all of this. I will try to put it in the simplest way I know how.

The preacher says of himself and all men, we are poor, blind, imperfect creatures; all our natural faculties are perverted, corrupted, and out of their right state; and therefore nothing that is perfect can come from us, or be done by us. Truth enough! And the very same truth, as when the apostle says, "The natural man knows not the things that are of God, he cannot know them, for they are foolishness to him." This is the man that we all are by nature. But what Scripture ever spoke of, or required any perfect works from this old man, anymore than they would require an elephant to fly? The Scriptures require us to become a NEW creature in Christ!

What an educated pastor must he be, who considers this old natural man as the Christian, and therefore rejects Christian perfection, because this old man cannot attain it? What greater blindness, than to appeal to our fallen state, as a proof of a weakness and corruption which we must have, when we have been redeemed from it? Is this any wiser than saying, that sin and corruption must be there where Christ is, because it is there where He is not?

What this new birth is in us, and what it accomplishes in us, is as expressly told us by his beloved apostle John, saying,

“No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” John 3:9

This is as true and unalterable, as to say, that which is born of the devil can do nothing else but sin.

Look at all of the good works you can think of, they have no goodness for you, except when the Spirit of God is the one who did them in and through you. For all the outward works of religion may be done by the natural man, he can observe all Church-duties, stick close to doctrines, and put on the semblance of every outward virtue; but, this is as high as he can go, he can only pretend!

Do not ask if we are saved by faith, or by works. For we are saved by neither of them. Faith and works are in the beginning only preparatory to the new birth; afterwards they become the true genuine fruits and effects of it. But the new birth, a life from heaven, the new creature, called Christ in us; is the one and only salvation of the fallen soul. Nothing can enter into heaven, but this life which is born of, and comes from heaven.

Try to grasp this great truth, that it is God who works all in humility and weakness; we are to wait and to trust in His working. Learn this well, that God can only work in us as He dwells in us.

“The Father abiding in Me does the works.”

Christ had revealed the secret of His, and all Divine service, man yielding himself up for God to dwell and work in him. Because it is God who works through us, and not we who do the holy works! We simply become an empty vessel for God to dwell in.

How this is to be, is taught us in these words,

“He that believes on Me.”

That does not only mean, for salvation, as a Savior from sin. But much more. Christ had just said,

‘Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me: the Father abiding in Me does the works.’

We need to believe in Christ as the one in and through whom the Father unceasingly works. The works His disciples are to do cannot possibly be done in any other way than Christ own works were done.

Not of works which we have done, as the source from which our salvation comes. Our works to attain salvation will never save us or anyone else! Good works are the fruit and outcome of our salvation, it is part of God’s work in us. This is the one thing for which we have been created anew.

As the eye, because it was created for the light, is most perfectly adapted for its work; and the vine, because it was created to bear grapes, also does its work so naturally; so it is with us who have been created in Christ Jesus for good works. God has prepared us for good works, and the good works are already prepared for us.

Eph. 2:10. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

And so just as strong and clear as the teaching is, Salvation not of works is its blessed counterpart,

Salvation for good works

because God created us for them, and even prepared them for us. Let each of us seek to understand the deep Spiritual truth of the message,

“Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand , that we should walk in them.”

God is even now waiting for us to do this.

One great failure of believers in their working for God is that when they think that God has given them something to do, they undertake to do this work in their own strength. They have not learned the lesson, that because God has created us in Christ Jesus for good works, and has already prepared the good works in which we are to walk, He will most certainly, Himself work them all in us.

"It is God which works in you."

The power to exercise and show love is a work. There is no such thing as power in the abstract; it only acts as it is exercised. a grace must be acted before we can rejoice in its possession.

This work of the Lord is no easy one. It cost Christ His life to conquer sin and Satan and gain the risen life. It will cost us our life, too, the sacrifice of our life of nature.

"And God is able to make all grace abound unto you, that you may abound unto every good work."

What Scripture calls the "works of the law", "our own works"; and the "works of righteousness which we have done," or "dead works;" any work by which we seek to merit or to be made fit for God’s favor, all of these are indeed the very opposite of grace. But they are the very opposite of the good works which spring from grace, and for which alone grace is bestowed. Abounding grace has abounding work for its aim. And abounding work needs abounding grace as its source and strength.

Just as any man may be very diligent in an earthly pursuit, or a heathen in his religious service of an idol; so men may be very diligent in doing religious works in their own strength, with but little thought of that grace which alone can do true Spiritually effective work. For all work that is to be really acceptable to God, and truly fruitful, not only for some visible result here on earth, but for eternity; the grace of God is always indispensable.

“For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.”

Working in our own strength, with very little prayer and not waiting on God for His spirit, is the cause of failure.

“That you may abound to every good work.”

Pray over this now until you know that this is what God has prepared for you. Take into your heart, as a living seed, this precious truth:

“God is able to make all grace abound in you.”

Trust His power and His faithfulness. The Apostle James said. James 2:14-17

What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

After we have been born anew in Christ we must make certain that we are not deceived, have the

“Old things truly passed away?”

2 Cor. 5:17. “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”  This is the Christian life.

Works and faith are in an indissoluble bond that cannot be broken, if you have faith, you will have works connected with that faith. If in fact you say that you have faith but no works follow, you have what the Apostle James would call a dead faith!

Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

I wrote this to point people to the truth; you will want to have this truth in your life when you face a God who spared nothing, and gave everything in order for you to have salvation.

Luke 13:7. "And he said to the vineyard-keeper, `Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?”

 

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The True Prayer

No book exists that can truly teach you how to pray, prayer must be an inward birth, that arises from the desires of your own heart. When anyone, feeling his or her own corruption, and the power of sin in their soul, looks up to God with true earnestness of faith and desires to be delivered from it, whether they pray aloud or pray with their mind, no prayer is better than this, because the Spirit Himself will intercede for them. The soul that truly takes each and every occasion of life regardless of whether it is something that appears to be good or something that seems to be bad, if they will allow themselves to simply fall down into the hands of God, and exercise faith, trust, and resignation to Him, they will always be safe in each and every state, regardless. God always accepts a broken, and contrite heart, God will answer this prayer.

Here lies something that is hidden from most souls; sometimes we may feel like we are on the mountain with Jesus, Moses and Elijah, this is a wonderful experience, but, it won't do our souls as much good as when tribulation and distress attack us. Because this always gives us the means and power of exercising a higher faith, a purer love, and a more perfect resignation to God, which is always the best state of the soul. Therefore the soul that sees only God, the soul that intends to be nothing but His alone, will have nothing to stop its progress; light and darkness equally assist him; in the light he looks up to God; in the darkness he lays hold on God; and so they both do him the same good. Here is the true darkness reappearing in the soul, to have an expectation of something coming from ourselves, which we should expect only from God. When we look for our own virtue, our own piety, our own goodness, we will live on in our own poverty and weakness; one day pleased and comforted with the seeming strength and firmness of our own pious state of mind, and fancying ourselves as being very Spiritual; but then, tomorrow, fallen into our own mire, we are dejected, but not humbled; we grieve, but it is only the grief of pride, because we see that we are not as Spiritual, as we had vainly imagined.

The only way we can go safely through all the difficulties, trials, temptations, dryness, and opposition, of our own evil moods, is to expect nothing from ourselves, and to trust nothing in ourselves, but in everything expect, and depend upon God for relief. Hold fast to this, and then regardless of what happens, whether it is darkness, temptation, or the rebellion of nature, you will be led through it all, and united with God. Do not think of looking for any other power to cause you to become a new creature in Christ, anymore than you would think of looking for another power to resurrect your body on the last day. Now perhaps you can see that all of the trials of life, in each and every circumstance, are really our greatest blessings; they do for us the very things that we need to have done, they force us to know our own nothingness, and the "All of God." They bring the reality of Romans 8:28 to life in our hearts,

 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

People who have long dwelt in the joy of devotion, in the center of Divine love, prac­ticing every virtue with a kind of greediness, become frightened when cold­ness seizes them, when their hymns do not seem to lift them to Heaven and their hearts, instead of enjoying the love of every virtue, seem ready to be overcome by every vice.
But here, hold fast to that which has been said and all will turn out for good. For this coldness is the Divine offspring, and gen­uine birth of the former fervor; and comes from it as a good fruit, and it will bring the soul nearer to God than the fervor did.

Consider yourself as wrong, as having gone astray, and having lost your right path, when any delight, desire, or trouble, is allowed to live in you, that you do not make a part of the prayer of your heart to God. For nothing so wonderfully shows us the true state of our heart, as that which gives us either delight or trouble; for as our delight and trouble is, so is the state of our heart: If you are carried away with any trouble or delight that does not have an immediate relation to your progress in the Divine life, you may be assured your heart is not in its right state of prayer to God, your heart is in the world.

A Test

If it is the earnest desire and longing of your heart, to be merciful as He is merciful; to be full of His unwearied patience, to dwell in His unalterable meekness; if you long to be like Him in impartial love; if you desire to communicate every good, to each and every creature that you are able; if you love and practice everything that is good, righteous, and lovely, for its own sake, because it is good, righteous, and lovely; and never resist evil, except with goodness; then you know with the utmost certainty, that the Spirit of God lives, dwells, and governs you.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength; and your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments,” said the Lord, “hangs all the law and the prophets.” And without these two com­mandments being true in our lives, no good light will ever arise, or enter our souls. What a great truth we have here! Seek to understand this, with all of your heart.

Do you know what it is to love God with all your heart and soul? You need to only look back, to that which has been said of the nature and Spirit of God. For when with all your heart and soul, you love and long to have His nature and Spirit, and to be wholly united to God, and also to be governed by Him; then you truly love God with all your heart and soul. Always live your life no matter where you are, in your home, at work, anywhere and everywhere with God's Divine Heavenly love always leading and ruling. The ways of love are so gentle and heavenly, you will not learn them all at once.

Place yourself at Christ’s disposal for service to your fellow Christians. Count yourself their servant. Study their interest. Set yourself actively to promote the welfare of the Christians and people around you. Only selfishness can make you hesitate, and sloth and ease may raise difficulties.

Remember it is always the lack of true sainthood and true holiness that causes such a deficiency and feebleness of our Christian service. Faith in Christ, whose strength is made perfect in our weakness, always gives us the power for all that God calls on us to do. Be certain that you understand this, it is because self, which expresses itself by self will, occupies our heart, this is why it is so easy, natural, and pleasing for us to care for ourselves. When Jesus Christ truly lives in us, it will then be just as easy, natural, and pleasing to live wholly for the body of Christ, and the people of this world who need God's salvation through Jesus Christ. “Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit” Remember, the Word of God is a seed, a fire, a hammer, a sword; it is bread, and light, it is many things. Always allow it to do its work in your life. The man of God who allows God’s Word to do its work of reproving, correcting, and instructing in his life, will be complete, and entirely furnished for every good work.

A Word About God's Love

Many people do not even start to understand what God's love is, and what it can actually do. To start with let's look at a few Scriptures that will explain quickly the difference between what unregenerate people call love, and what God means when He says to love one another. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 "Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails .”

1.  Love is patient - This is the first attribute about love that God gives us, whenever we are not patient with our spouse, children or anyone; we are then and there not in the process of loving them. We might say many times that we love them, but understand that at that moment of time we are NOT loving them. Love is a verb, it is an action, we are loving people, or we are not loving people, and this goes on all day long.

2.  Love is kind - Does this really need to be said, yes, it many times has to be clarified. Oftentimes, especially with married people, they are not kind to one another, when this is happening, they are not in the process of loving each other. Make certain that at all times and places you are loving (kind) to everyone you are around.

3.  Does not seek its own - Love is NEVER selfish, but our conditional human kind of love is often selfish, and we don't even realize it. Again when this is happening, we are not operating in love! Love as God has demonstrated to us in the giving of Himself and His Son, is NEVER selfish!

4)  Does not take into account a wrong suffered – When someone does some­thing wrong, how many times do you bring it up and hold it over them? Do you keep bringing it up, especially when you are angry. This again is human conditional love, it is really not love at all, but a cheap substitute for God's love.

5)  Bears all things, believes all things, endures all things, Love never fails God has said, love bears all things, endures all things, love never fails, God's love is always this way, it never fails. This is the difference between God's love and unregenerate human conditional love which really is not love at all! Do you bear all that your spouse, or others do, all of the time? When you fail at this, all that has really happened, is that you are not truly loving that person.

Can you see the real essence of love, does it seem to you that you could not consistently live this way, always bearing all things, always enduring all things, always loving like God loves? When you understand what love is, you will realize what God meant when He said, "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” You will also have a better understanding of what He was saying in Matthew 7:21 "Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.”

We must be one of those “Who does the will of Our Father who is in heaven.”

About now, you might be thinking, this looks impossible, your Bible will tell you that nothing is impossible with God! This impossible looking thing is the very situa­tion that brings us to see our need to pray, in order to receive help from above, Divine help. We cannot live the Christian life without Christ, this is why Jesus said you must be born again, until we experience the new birth of Christ in our souls, we truly cannot do anything that requires righteous­ness, we must abide in the Spirit of God.

Jesus told us a Divine truth in John 15:5 when he said . . . “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” And don't let any Devil tell you that you can't obey God, because you can, with God's help. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” And also Jesus said . . "I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” Now, if Jesus could do nothing without the Father, how much more do we need to depend on Him. "He who has My command­ments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him."

I Don't Think That God Is Hearing My Prayers!

Have you ever wondered if God was really going to answer your prayer, or perhaps at times as you were praying you were think­ing that your prayer was not getting any higher than the ceiling of the room that you were in! Many people have felt this way, and the reason why is simply this, you were in the process of telling God what you knew He wanted to hear, for instance, Lord I love you, Lord I love your Word, Lord I want to be fruitful, etc. etc.

Now all that many people do is lie to God, yes, this is what you are doing whenever you are praying and asking for something that is not really in your heart! Many people tell God that they love His Word when they rarely ever read it, except in church when their Pastor tells them to turn to a certain passage. You might be surprised just how many professing Christians there are that have never read the Bible through from Genesis to Revelation even once! God does not answer prayers that are in reality only lies. Many people spend years doing this and have never had even one prayer truly answered!

When you pray, speak only truth to God, if you don't delight in reading His Word tell Him, He can change that, you can't! If you are not living for Him as you should, ask your Savior  to change that, He can, and

He Will!

 

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Will Versus Desire

For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.     John 6:38

Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, He never sinned, and therefore He is our example, we are to copy His way of life, for that is the only way that we can have life, I mean true life. In the above Scripture Jesus told us how He lived His life, He said “I came down to earth not to do My own will, but the Will of Him who sent Me.“

This is a very important Scripture, in it we are told how to live an overcoming life, and how to have continual victory in our lives here on earth. We start out in life doing only our own will; the things that we want to do, this is the fountain of sin – doing our will instead of God's will, which is really thinking that we are smarter than God! Learn this about God, He can see around corners, by this I mean He can see what is going to happen tomorrow, and even ten thousand or twenty trillion years in the future. He is Eternal, He doesn't live in this finite life of time!

How foolish is it to have a God like our Heavenly Father, and not listen to Him, not be lead moment by moment by His very insightful will. This appears to me to be the mistake of all mistakes. Why do people make this tragic error over and over?

God has given us certain faculties one of which is intellect, intellect includes understanding, reason, and conscience. Another is sensibility it is the faculty of feeling. It comprises emotions, desires, affections, all of the things we call feelings.

Will is the power of choice, our ability to choose or refuse whatever we want to.

Our conscious state is made up of our intellect, sensibility, and will. Now we must understand that the law of God presents us plainly with the fact that we can do the things that God commands us to do, which is always everything that God's moral government demands. Its language is "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself." The true meaning of this law is that every moral being shall consecrate all of his or her powers, whatever they are at the present moment, to the service of God. Our consciousness informs us that by willing, we control the acts and states of our intellect and that we think, reason, judge, and affirm, by voluntarily controlling the attention of our mind. Consciousness also testifies that we feel by directing our attention to objects calculated to excite our feelings, and that we act by willing to act. Thus God rules us by the voluntary power of our minds surrendering to the will (law) of God. God wants to secure the entire consecration of our whole being to His great purpose which is non-conditional love.

Always remember that the will of God is expressed in His law. He is Himself in the same state of mind in which He requires all moral beings to be; that is, He loves us regardless of what we do, or don't do, He is always in a state of non-conditional love.

Holiness is a term that expresses the moral quality of His will. Love is the fulfilling of that will; and our conformity to His will in this law of universal love is holiness. When we obey God in this, it implies that we have confidence in the wisdom of God. If we did not believe that God was wise we could not innocently pray that His will be done.

It also implies confidence in His love. If God is not love, we have no right to pray that His will may be done. And if we do not believe Him to be universal and perfect love, we have no right to pray that His will should be done perfectly on earth as it is in heaven. It implies a confidence in the one who prays, that it is possible that the will of God can be done on earth as it is in heaven. For if he does not believe it is possible, he cannot sincerely pray that it be done. It implies a confidence in the one who prays, that it is possible that the will of God can be done on earth as it is in heaven. For if he does not believe it is possible, he cannot sincerely pray that it be done.

So away with all such excuses that tend to relieve your conscience of all responsibility of obeying God in this great commandment! Come at once and forever out of the selfish religion that puts your own will and comfort first, and gives Christ what you have left over and don't want.

Another aspect of this prayer is hypocrisy. In the mouth of a selfish being it can only be hypocrisy. It must be in all cases down­right hypocrisy for a selfish man to offer this petition to God. Because this petition is hypocrisy on the lips of anyone whose will is not in entire harmony with the will of God so far as God's will is known to them. If there is anything in which the will is not entirely conformed to the known will of God, in offering this prayer, the petitioner is being hypocritical, and is in the act of abusing, flattering, and mocking God.

We see what Christ intended by the command, "Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect." Many persons feel shocked at the idea of anyone being even for a moment without sin in this life. And to expect to be perfect in this life, is with them completely unreasonable. From the manner in which they speak of the subject of perfection, it would seem that Christ's command "To be perfect as God is perfect" is a most extravagant requisition, and something which Christ did not expect we could, or would obey in this world.

If they are consistent they must suppose that in requiring us to offer this petition to God, He must have intended that we should understand Him as using a “figure of speech,” and not that we should seriously expect or even suppose it possible that the will of God should be done on earth by any human being as it is done in heaven. But the truth is that Christ simply intended to require men to be truly religious.

We have just seen that nothing short of being as perfectly conformed to the will of God as the Angels in Heaven are, can be called true religion. He meant therefore merely to say, be truly religious, be what God requires you to be. Do not rebel in anything against the will of God, but be upright, sincere, and perfect, which is all saying the same thing. It is therefore, true that every moral being that can sincerely offer this prayer is, and must be, in his measure, for the time being, so far as the state of his heart is concerned, as perfect as God is.

An Important Truth

Both the flesh and the Spirit have desires, one must be denied in order for the other to have its way!

Wherever, and in whatever, the working will chooses to dwell and delight in, that becomes food for your soul, its condition, its clothing, and its habitation. For all these are the true and certain effects and powers of the working will. Nothing does, or can go with a man into heaven; nothing follows into hell, but that in which your will loved and dwelt in, and with which it was fed, nourished, and clothed, in this life.

It is sad but very true that your nature must become a torment and burden to itself, before it will willingly give itself up to that death, through which alone it can pass into life. For salvation is in reality a victory over nature; so far as you resist and renounce your own vain, selfish, and earthly nature, so far you can overcome all your own natural (evil) habits of the old man, and as far as this is done, this is how far God can enter into you, live, and operate in your life.

"My little children, of whom I travail in birth, until Christ be formed in you." This forming of Christ in us, is the sum total of all, and, if this is missing, everything is missing. "Though I speak with the tongues of men and Angels, though I have the gift of prophecy, though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, etc. and have not love" (that is, have not the Spirit of Christ) "It profits me nothing." For by love here, the apostle means neither more nor less, but strictly that same thing, which, in other places, is called the new creature, Christ formed in us, and our being led by the Spirit of Christ.

All preaching and hearing is vain, and all preachers and hearers stand chargeable with the vanity of their religious performances, who think of preaching, or hearing to be profitable, in any other way, or by any other power, than in and by the Holy Spirit of God dwelling and working in them. As creatures therefore, we are under an absolute necessity of being under the motion, guidance, and inspiration of some spirit, that is greater than our own. All that is put in our own power, is merely the choice of our leader; but led and moved we must be, and by that spirit, to which we give ourselves up, whether it be to the Spirit of God, or the spirit of our old fallen nature. Every spirit necessarily reaps that which it sows, it cannot possibly be otherwise, it is the unalterable procedure of nature.
All of our salvation necessarily depends upon us, because our will has its power of motion in itself. As a will, it wills only to receive that which it wills; everything else is absolutely shut out of it. For it is the unalterable nature of the will, that it cannot possibly receive anything into itself, but that which it wills; its willing is its only power of receiving; and there can be no possible entrance for God or heaven into the soul, until our will desires it; and thus in this way, all of man's salvation depends upon himself. God made us free moral agents.
And so the Lord of glory says to us "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." John 14:15 yes, this is, and can only be our decision, our will in action. And though when we are upon our knees, and pray for different spiritual things, and direct our prayers to the Lord God of heaven; yet only the things that are truly in our desire (heart) are in fact the things we really desire, and these things are in actuality the God of our heart, and, unfortunately we truly worship them in spirit, and in truth.
As we can see, willing and doing are connected by a natural necessity, and that a man naturally and necessarily acts as he wills, and can't act any way other than that in which he wills to act. We oftentimes are “taken in” by our own subtle ways of praying, when we pray prayers that are not from our heart (our will.) What greater good can be expected from our praying in the words of David, or singing his Psalms several times a day, if our heart has no more of the spirit of David in it, than the heart of the Pharisee had of the spirit of the humble publican?
The great multitude who profess to having religion have, I fear, fallen entirely short of conceiving rightly the nature of true religion, and a thorough investigation of the subject is long overdue, also, the Lord's prayer in its true spirit should be deeply pondered by the Church, and the question should be asked, “What is implied in the sincere offering of this prayer to God?” Unless these fundamental inquiries are started and pressed, until the Church comes to an intelligent understanding of them, false hopes will continue to be cherished, and thousands of professing Christians will continue to go down to hell.
If self is not denied, if you live on in your own will, to the pleasures of your own natural lust and appetites, and in conformity to the vain customs, and spirit of this world, you are truly dead yet while you live. Therefore stop all this self-activity, do not listen to the suggestions of your own reason, do not run on, in your own will, but be retired, silent, passive, and humbly attentive to this new risen light of God's Spirit within you.

It is because of all of this, the working of your own will, reason, and judgment, that you are not where you are supposed to be, and it is because all of these things are false counselors, the sworn servants, bribed slaves of your fallen nature; they are all born and bred in your kingdom of self; and therefore, if a new kingdom is to be set up in you, if the operation of God is to have its effect in you, all these natural powers of self must be silenced and suppressed, until they have learned obedience and subjection to the Spirit of God.

Jesus said, “Unless a man forsakes all that he has, he cannot be my disciple” The reason is simple, and the necessity absolute. It is because all that the natural man has, is in the possession of self-love, and therefore this possession is to be absolutely forsaken, and parted with. All that he has, is to be given to Divine love, or else this natural man cannot be changed into a disciple of Christ. For self-love in all that it has, is earthly, sensual, and devilish, and therefore it must have everything taken away from it; and then to the natural man all is lost, he has nothing left, all is laid down at the feet of Jesus. I know all of this seems to be “A hard saying” but it is the truth, listen to Jesus, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it. You must sell all that you have, you must lose your life,” in order to gain Eternal life. The riches of self are your own riches; but all this self is to be parted with before the pearl of great price can be yours. Think of a lower price, or be unwilling to give this price for it, plead with all of your excuses, and then you have become that very rich young man in the gospel, that went away sorrowful from our Lord, because HE HAD great riches!

Did he really have great riches?
Do you?

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Pride - Humility

 

1Peter 5:5 You younger men, likewise, be subject to {your} elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

All virtue is based on truth, we can have no humility until we discover our constant and continual need to be led by Jesus Christ. The entrance of humility into our lives is the discovery that we can truly do nothing good in this life, apart from abiding in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (John 15:5). The one who rightly feels and lives in this sense of his needy condition, lives in humility. Whenever you have the feeling “I can handle it” you have re-entered the life of pride!

Let's look at the proud-hearted person, if others knew all of the secrets of his or her internal life that he or she knows, nothing would ap­pear more dreadful than to have their heart fully discov­ered to the eyes of all that looked upon it. The life of the intensely proud person is filled with worry and concern, the main problem for them is to keep all the true workings of their heart a secret to others that they come in contact with, this they must do on a continual basis. Very few people in this world would not rather choose to die, than to have all their secret follies, the errors of their judgments, the vanity of their minds, the falseness of their pretense, the frequency of their vain and disorderly passions, their uneasiness, hatred, envies, and the secret sins which they have done become known to the world.

Let's Take A Look At Humility

Humility does not consist in having a worse opinion of ourselves than we deserve, the true state of our heart is enough to shame us when we become aware of it. There never was, nor ever will be, but only one true humility in this world, and that is the one humility of Jesus Christ, which no man, ever since the fall of Adam, could have any degree of but only that portion which he has received from Christ.

Pride and self have all of man, until man has his all from Christ. It is a fact that every son of Adam is in the service of pride and self, regardless of what he is doing, until a humility that comes only from heaven becomes his redeemer.

He alone fights the good fight of faith, whose strife is with his own self-idolatrous nature, which he inherited from Adam. The real fight or strife is bringing to death all of the pride in our lives by the supernatural humility of Jesus Christ, the meek and humble lamb of God.

Is it possible for pride to dwell in a heart conscious of its own miserable behavior? Shall a creature in such a condition that he could not support himself if his shame ever became known to the world, could he possibly, be so vain and proud of himself? Do not ever forget that all of your shame and wrong doing is known to God, and to His holy angels that are constantly looking down upon your life of pride, from Heaven!.

The apostate self-idolatrous nature of the old man must be put off, or there can be no new creature in Christ. The reason why this must always be, is because all that you have or do, will either have the glory of God manifested in it, or the power of hell in full possession of it! This is always true, we are really slaves in this life, the only choice we have is to whom we will be enslaved. We will serve the living, Holy, and loving God or we will be serving our self-idolatrous nature along with Satan and his group of demons. You must understand this, that whenever pride raises it's unholy head in our lives, we are really enthroning Satan to rule in our lives!

What is it that above all other things strengthens and exalts the life of self, and makes it the master of all the powers of the heart and soul? It is the pride of thinking that we know more than others, this is what makes us want to strive to have great intellect, this is part of our “flights of imagi­nation,” along with the glory of learning, and the self-conceited strength of our natural reason: all of these things are the different parts of the strong-holds of our fallen nature, which is the master-builder of pride's temple in our hearts, which, keep up the daily worship of the idol “Self.”

Why does all of this folly come about? It comes because the Church is no longer that Spiritual house of God, in which nothing is intended and sought after, but Spiritual power, Spiritual life, humility, meekness and patience. The Church has become a mere human building, made up of worldly power, worldly learning, and worldly prosperity in gospel matters. And therefore all the frailties, follies, and imperfections of human nature, must have as much life in the Church, as in any other human society. And the best members of such a Church, must be forced to plead for it's members to have as many imperfections as is to be expected in any worldly endeavor, where the fallen nature of man is still alive, and in charge. For nothing but a full birth, and continual breathing and inspiration of God's Holy Spirit in the newborn creature, can be a deliverance from all that which is earthly, sensual, and devilish in our fallen nature.

Away then with all the wearisome books about Church unity, Church power, and Church salvation. Do not ask for theolo­gians to give you a definition of the Church. The apostle has already given it to you, and not only a definition, but he has described the unchangeable nature of it as well, in these words. “But now Being made free from sin, and become servants of God, you have your fruits unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." And again in 1 John 3:9 “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” Therefore to be in the true Church, and to be in Christ a new creature which does not sin, is in the strictest sense, the very same thing.

Proud self is all the evil that man has, and God is all the goodness that he can ever have; self is always with him in this life, and God also is always wi