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Ï H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
December, 1939
tention to the fact that he had not even mentioned sin in it, he said: “Oh, well, there ought not to be any such thing.” This is the hopeless attitude of the mod ernistic position. They have no answer for the problem, hence the problem should not exist. But the Bible not only deals with sin as a matter of nature. It deals with it as a matter of present experience as well. The Christian as well as the Sin ner has a sin problem. But the Chris tian’s sin problem is not the same as the sinner’s sin problem. The sinner’s sin problem is one of justification; the Christian’s is one of sanctification. Jus tification is being rid of original sin, perpetual sin. Sanctification is being rid of; occasional sin. How can the Christian be rid of occasional sin ? Here it is in verse 22: “Obeying the truth.” Cleansing takes place by means of the Word of God. The Psalmist cries, “Wherewithal shall a-young man cleanse his ways?” and he promptly gives the answer, “By taking heed thereto according to thy word” (Psa. 119:9). “Christ . . . loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word” (Eph. 5:25, 26). IV. The Ministry of a Great Life (v; 22). What would you say was the min istry of a great life? Our answers would' run; the gamut of human ex perience, but. the Bible mentions one thing—LOVE. “See that ye love one another with a pure heart.” | This verse s p e a k s of two pure things: first, of a purified soul made clean by ’the Word, and second, of pure, hearts loving one another. Love opt of a pure heart is .the: normal con sequence when a soul has been purified by the Word. If we are not lovely and -loying, it is because we need an other washing in the Word. The Word wUl wash away jealousy and. envy and greed and criticism.. When these are gone, love will dominate our lives and Will become the quality of our minis try., ■| If love is the ministry of greatness, then its absence is the measure of a small and niggardly, cheap and cross life. If there is to be the stature of t r u e greatness, there must be love one to another. Think of what that would do for our church, our home, our city, our nation, our world and even ■for. ourselves! “Unfeigned l o v e of the brethren”! How is this love made possible? It is manifested in those whose lives are filled ■with practical holiness, in Chris tians, who are “obeying the truth through the Spirit.” In these the min istry of true greatness is fulfilled. In them the great God is living out His own life.
price involved. In this case it is a precious, infinitely valuable possession because the price was the precious blood of Christ. His was a unique blood. There was never blood like it before nor since. It was precious blood not only because of its rarity, rarer than radium or rubies, but also because of what it purchased—it purchased eter nal salvation for the sinning “whoso- evers.” 2. Regeneration (vs. 22-25). Verse 18 speaks of corruptible things, while verse 23 speaks, of corruptible seed. Neither corruptible things nor seed had any place in the transforming process of Christian experience. The blood of Christ is unlike human blood —it is incorruptible. The Word of God is unlike the word of man—it is in corruptible. Notice the term “seed.” A seed con tains a life getm, passes through a ger minating process, and springs into life. You cannot just cultivate the soil of the soul and expect a new life. You must put new seed into the soul, and out of it shall spring life eternal. But this doctr! c of purchase by blood and birth by the Word is the last thing man will believe and accept. In Peter’s day, they turned to gnosticism. In pur day it is agnosticism. If not that, then it is Buchmanism and Humanism and all kinds of isms. ■Humanism has a current following of considerable proportions. It is the wor ship of man and not of God. It extolls the deity of human nature. It exalts a human salvation. It is an effort to work out man’s own salvation. It is nothing m o r e nor less than ancient Naamanism. «You remember that when Naaman the leper was told to wash in the Jordan River, he straightened himself up in all the haughtiness of his military dignity and said disdain fully, “Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel ? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.” Abana and Phar par may have been greater from Naa- man’s viewpoint. However, it was not Naaman’s viewpoint that mattered—but God’s. God said the Jordan. It was not the waters of the Jordan that mat tered so much as the God of the Jordan. We, too, have our modem Abana and Pharpar in Humanism. To us it is a great culture and a great philosophy, but the basic question is this: Has it cleansing power ? Can it take way sin ? Can it wash away guilt ? Can it re generate? All of our modem substitutes for the gospel crash upon the question of sin. None of them can solve the sin problem, and all of them must sooner or later be abandoned. It is said that a modem teacher wrote a whole book on religion’s mean ing, and when his friends called his at
the mind and thought of-God. Here lies the key of a successfully great life. If you will link your thoughts with God by girding the loins of your mind with the girdle of God’s Word, you will then have at your command the resources of Omnipotence. 2. Separation (vs. 14-17). This second aspect of “the manner of a great life” is our relation to the outer life (with the girded mind we saw our relation to the inner life). Here is the negative aspect of greatness (previous ly we saw the positive aspect). Greatness consists equally as much in what is not in a man as in what is in him—equally as much in what a man does not do as what he does. To be great, a man must not only think right but he must also live right. To live right in God’s sight, a man must first of all be a nonconformist. “Be not conformed to this world” (Rom. 12:2), “not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance” (1 Pet. 1:14). The Bible is trying to tell some of you, this morning, that you cannot live right because you are try ing to live with some of the filth of the old life. Your pockets are filled with it. Your mouth is filled with it. Your ears are filled with it. Your hands are filled with it, And if you thought right, you would live right by allow ing Christ to rid you of these imple ments of evil and these desires of sin. Holiness is just another word for great ness. There is a practical and pressing need for a new emphasis upon holiness in our day. III. The Making of a Great Life (vs. 18-25). To be great we need not have our names on the roster of k i n g s and princes, but our names must certainly be in the “Lamb’s book of life.” Who ever has his name there has true great ness because he is associated with the great God and possesses the dimensions of eternity. But this is only possible on the basis of two things that are set forth in these verses: first, redemption, and second, regeneration. We are, first of all, BOUGHT. We are, secondly, BORN. We are bought by the BLOOD OF CHRIST. We are born by the WORD OF GOD. 1. Redemption—The Godward aspect (vs, 18-21). “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things . . . But with the precious blood of Christ . . Moody has reminded us, .“God first came down to create, then to save. To create, God had only to speak; to re deem, He had to suffer. He made man by His breath; He saved him by His blood.” The greatness of our possession is in proportion to the greatness of the
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