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salvation rests upon Christ’s work on behalf of sinners, the one who accepts Christ never can lose the benefits of eternal life. But Paul was referring to the danger of a believer’s becom ing “disapproved” (v. 27, Scofield margin), disqualified, prohibited from engaging in the contest for the prize, or competing in the race. IV. P ower T hrough S eparation (1 T hess . 5:22) “Abstain from every form of evil.” This verse is part of a section which deals with the search for truth. No “prophesyings” (v. 20) are to be despised, but all are to be considered and tested by Scripture; whatever is found in accord with the Word is to be retained. There must be discern ment which will lead to the separa tion of the true from the false. The injunction is to abstain “from all appearance of evil,” or “from every form” of error (marg.). Error, if it exists, will be revealed as the “prophesyings,” or teachings are com pared with the Word of God. By eliminating the error which the Word thus reveals, the believer will grow in spiritual power. Points and Problems 1. "The fear of the Lord is the begin ning of knowledge" (Prov. 1:7). These words should be inscribed over the en trance to every school and college in the land. The institution or instructor who ignores this fundamental prin ciple fails to lay the foundation of all real teaching. Two kinds of fear are possible in relation to God. Morgan says, “There is the fear lest Hq should hurt me and there i the fear lest I should hurt Him. The first is selfish, and produces no fruit of righteousness. The last is the fear of lave, which pro duces holiness of character and right eousness of conduct.” 2. "We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us" (Jer. 35:6). Jeremiah uses an. object lesson in order to shame his people out of their dis obedience. The Rechabites had been faithful to the traditions of their fathers for hundreds of years, but Judah was refusing to abide by the will of God. The placing of the wine before the Rechabites «met with a flat refusal to drink. They remained true to their traditions. God blessed them for it. The import of the object lesson is this: If God would so bless these people of the desert for obedience to man-made laws, how much more would He bless Judah and Jerusalem
if they would be true to Him. The game principle maintains today. 3. "So run, that $e may obtain" (1 Cor. 9:24). It is not the obtaining of salvation that is in view here. The Apostle is talking about, rewards for service. All Christians are in the race to which Paul refers in these •verses, but not all will receive the same reward at the end. What the re ward will be in each case depends upon how the race is run. In athletic contests there are Certain rules that must be observed (cf. 2 Tim. 2:5). God has made some rules for those who wpuld receive the highest re wards in the day i>f Christ’s coming. One of the rules is self-control (cf. Heb. 12:1). 4. "So fight I, not as one that beat- eth the air" (1 Cor. 9:26). The Christian ought not to live aimlessly as one who “ beateth the air.” By the content and attitude of his life, he ought to be beating his adversaries.— the world, the flesh, and the devil. All sham should be absent from those who fight for the Lord. Tell the young men that General Grant does not drink a drop of liquor —has not for/eighteen years. I tried to drink with extreme moderation, be cause I knew that alcohol is the worst poison a man can take into his system, but I found it was an ab solute impossibility to drink moder ately. Therefore, I became an abso lute teetotaler. , Ninety-five per cent of desertions and acts of lawlessness in the army are due to drink. If I could, by offer ing my body a sacrifice, free the coun try from the demon drink, I would thank the Almighty for the privilege of doing it. If I had the greatest ap pointive powers in the country, no man would get even the smallest ap pointment from me unless he showed proof of his absolute teetotalism. As it is, of my own appointees, the mem bers of my staff, not one of them Golden Text. Illustration 1 C orinthians 9 :25
touches a drop.—Frederick D. Grant in A Modern Cyclopedia of Illustrations, by Hallock; Sons Of Rechab J eremiah 35:5-10 MEMORY VERSE: “Children, obey your parents” (Eph. 6:1). AIM: To show that we please our
heavenly F a t h e r when we obey our parents. A P P R O A C H : When you h a v e d o n e w e l l i n school, the -teacher may show y o u r work to the whole class. She does this to help others
to do better. LESSON STORY: Once the Lord’s people needed very much to be helped in this way. They were not obeying the' heavenly Father as they should, so He gave them an object lesson that they could "understand. The Lord’s servant, Jeremiah, worked with Him in order to make the lesson clear to thè people. “Jeremiah,” the Lord said in words like these, “you know the sons of Rechab, don’t you? You know that long ago they promised their father that they would not drink wine, or build houses, or plant grain—just be cause he had asked them not to do these things. “Well, Jeremiah, I want you to test these people to see whether they will obey their father, Rechab, even when it is hard to do that. Put bowls full of wine before them, and see what they will do.” . ? Jeremiah did as the Lord had asked. The sons of Rechab were surprised. “We will drink no wine,” they said firmly, “for . . . our father command ed us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine . . . for ever” (v. 6). Then the Lord showed all the chil dren of Israel that if the sons of Re chab could obey their earthly father like that, surely every one should obey the heavenly Father. God wants us to learn from this object lesson, too. OBJECTS: A picture of Christ or a red cross, a quart fruit jar, in which is placed an imitation cigarette, an imitation playing card, a flask-shaped bottle filled with vinegar, an imita tion theater ticket, and a black pa per heart on whch are written the words, “HATRED,” “LYING,” “STEALr TNG.” and “UNBELIEF.” Object Lesson M aking R oom for C hrist
BLACKBOARD LESSON
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