MAY 31
SUGGESTED READING: 2 CORINTHIANS 6:14–18
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you (2 Cor. 6:17).
The life of faith in Jesus Christ is marked by separation, sacrifice, and satisfaction.
Are you looking to God and His truth for the purpose of your life? Or are you paying more attention to your culture, or your church, or your little circle of friends? You must be willing to separate yourself from all of those and be true to God! You must learn to separate yourself unto God.
Sacrifice does not mean merely giving up what you prize most. Sacrifice means giving yourself to God in perfect surrender, because you can give Him nothing else.
What is the purpose of sacrifice? Let me say it this way: If a consecrated life is one of everlasting giving, I would go straight to ruin; my surrender to God was once and forever, so that I might be filled with God’s fullness. Only His fullness satisfies Him!
PRAYER THOUGHT: He is Lord of nothing if He is not Lord of all.
SUGGESTED READING: LUKE 6:12–18
And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD (Gen. 12:8).
What is prayer? The preparation for spiritual battle? Never! Prayer is the battle.
When do you pray? A practice of Jesus’ life revealed the secret of prayer. Jesus enjoyed “victorious days” because He spent many nights alone in prayer. And when did His lonely nights of prayer come? Usually after a day of victory. Like Him, we must learn how to cope with victory.
Let me illustrate. One of our younger Scottish peers went to the Alps and climbed a certain peak with a guide. Then he tried one that had not been ascended before. When he came to the pinnacle, he turned aside and began jumping about. His guide told him it was not safe behaving like that and said to get down on his knees.
After reaching a point of spiritual victory, get down on your knees. Pray! Commune with God. Do not shout to others.
PRAYER THOUGHT: In these hectic days, enable me to separate myself from others and really pray—as You did, Lord.
SUGGESTED READING: MATTHEW 18:1–6
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand (John 10:27–28).
Have you ever seen God give someone a tremendous blow for molesting one of His children? Woe to the person who touches or troubles the children of God—the apple of His eye.
Over and over again, the first disciples of Jesus made that blunder. Remember Peter? He once said, “Jesus, what will this man do?” Jesus told Peter, in effect, “Mind your own business” (John 21:22). Martha said, “I am serving You, Jesus. Make Mary come and help me in the work.” Jesus replied, “Martha, Mary has chosen the better way. She has taken orders from Me” (Luke 10:41–42).
We are not to touch God’s obedient child. If anyone were to abuse a child of God, Jesus said, “… It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matt. 18:6).
God blights the hypocrites who pretend to be virtuous and pious, for the purpose of winning favor for themselves, as they correct and chastise other Christians. Remember, God will condemn everyone who dares to say anything against His children.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Father, forgive us for not loving each other as we ought. Help me not to be guilty of deliberately offending another Christian.
SUGGESTED READING: MATTHEW 25:14–23
His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord (Matt. 25:21).
Many of us place too much emphasis on our work for God and not enough emphasis on preparation for the work. The Nazarene Carpenter prepared for thirty years in obscurity, to do three years of work. Today the standard is three or four years of preparation for thirty years’ work.
May God help us to understand that, before He puts His servants in a place of power, He puts them in a place of preparation. God grant that we will remain where He puts us, and not run before we are sent.
There is loneliness in being faithful to God’s will. But we must be faithful!
PRAYER THOUGHT: Lord, as You enable and empower, I will be faithful to You.
SUGGESTED READING: ACTS 2:1–36
… They should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me (Acts 1:4).
Did Pentecost come because the believers waited for it? Did their waiting produce it? Did God give the Day of Pentecost to them as a reward for their patience? These questions represent a misunderstanding of the ways of God as revealed in the Scriptures. The Day of Pentecost would have come, whether the disciples waited for it or not.
The Day of Pentecost “fully came” twenty centuries ago, and the Holy Spirit has been here on earth ever since. The baptism in the Holy Spirit—when power from on high is manifested in a frail human being—is the infallible sign that Jesus is risen and lives.
Have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit? Some people say, “Oh, I am waiting like the disciples did in the upper room.” That is very foolish. The Holy Spirit is here. Now, now, now is the time to receive Him. With singleness of purpose, receive Him now.
Are you and your Christian friends in one accord, one mind, one purpose, in one place? Yes? Then the Holy Spirit will manifest His unspeakable power.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Fill me daily, Lord, with the fullness of Your Holy Spirit. May I ever be completely Yours!
SUGGESTED READING: EPHESIANS 1
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise (Eph. 1:13).
If you say you are entirely sanctified and have never been baptized in the Holy Spirit, you have deluded yourself. You have merely accepted a holiness Shibboleth. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is Jesus Christ’s seal on your soul and is your inauguration into service to battle for your King.
Sanctification begins at regeneration and goes on to the second crisis and work of grace—that is, entire sanctification and the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Are you in one purpose, in one determination? Then receive Him. It is not your waiting, but your wanting; it is not your running, but your receiving that matters in this. You can receive your Pentecost now! If you are born again, it is your birthright.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Thank You, Lord, for the sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit.
SUGGESTED READING: ROMANS 6:1–18
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin (Rom. 6:6).
The important thing is not what I am thought to be, what I would like to be, or what I think I am, but what I really am in the sight of God.
I am ruled by my disposition. Not my human nature nor my personality, but my disposition is the principle that rules my personality. And disposition is what the atonement of Jesus Christ radically alters. That disposition is called “the old man,” the “body of sin,” or “original sin,” and it is something quite apart from human nature. For this reason, the apostle Paul distinguishes emphatically between “the flesh” and “this mortal body.”
Sin is not the essence of your mortal body. Sin is the disposition that rules it, and it is what Jesus Christ cleanses through the atonement.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Thank You, Lord Jesus, for the grace to be freed from the power and pollution of the carnal nature of sin.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin (1 John 1:7).
The Bible never confuses sin and sins. Sins must be forgiven, while sin must be cleansed. The Bible never uses the word forgive in connection with sin.
John wrote his first epistle to Christians who say there is no such thing as a disposition of sin. John says that if you think you have no sin, you deceive yourself (1 John 1:8). The disposition of sin “is enmity with God” (James 4:4) and cannot be reconciled to God. There is only one thing to do with it. You must enter into the death of Jesus and have the “old man” of sin crucified with Christ.
First John 1:9 tells us that “if we confess our sins (not sin), he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins (not sin), and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”—that is, from the disposition to sin. We must deal with this disposition of sin, a principle that rules human nature.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Crucify once and for all this disposition of sin within me, dear Father.
When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace:But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils (Luke 11:21–22).
Sometimes we forget that the carnal heart of man is at peace. Psalm 73 pictures the wicked person from God’s standpoint. Such a person is happy, peaceful, contented, and not bothered about the future.
Luke 11 says this world is “the palace” of the Devil. He lives in his palace. And what are his goods? Men and women. Undisturbed peace in a person’s life may be a sign of Satan’s rule as well as of God’s rule. This is but another way in which the Devil is an imitator of God.
The disposition of darkness (sin) keeps one happy, peaceful, and undisturbed until meeting Jesus Christ. Then one is pained. A sign of life is pain when you learn you are wrong.
The gospel is hid from those who are lost (2 Cor. 4:3), and they feel they are all right. But Jesus Christ is the disturber of sinful people. When He disturbs us, He offers deliverance from the dark disposition of sin.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Jesus, I appreciate the deliverance from sin through Your shed blood on Calvary.
SUGGESTED READING: 1 CORINTHIANS 2:6–16
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God (1 Cor. 2:12).
The Bible uses several phrases to describe a person’s disposition of sin. First is “the natural man.” First Corinthians 2:14 tells us that “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him. …”
You can hammer away at someone about spiritual things as long as you like; but until you rely on the Holy Spirit, and realize that only He can convict your friend of sin, you might as well talk to a wooden seat. Jesus Christ can satisfy only those whom the Holy Spirit has convicted of sin.
The Bible also talks about “the rational man,” who is highly intelligent. Such a person reasons things out. Paul says that “Christ crucified” is foolishness to the rational person. Preach Jesus Christ to someone who is moral, upright, and well-educated, and he will say, “Why did Jesus want to die for me? I am all right.” The disposition of the rational man makes God’s truth seem like stupidity. But Paul says, “The foolishness of God is wiser than men …” (1 Cor. 1:25).
PRAYER THOUGHT: Open my eyes and enlighten my understanding, O Lord, to a clearer comprehension of spiritual truth.
SUGGESTED READING: MATTHEW 10:29–39
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law (Matt. 10:34–35).
“The rational man,” unless he has been disturbed by the Spirit of God, will treat the Bible like any other book. How can such a person do otherwise? Unless one is born again, the Bible seems like any other book.
Criticism of the Bible does not hurt the Bible; it reveals the disposition of the critic. “We are the children of wrath” by nature and are in danger of becoming eternal children of the Devil. But when Christ meets someone who is in peace (because of the natural, dark disposition of sin), there is a disturbance. There is a change in one’s view of things—including the Bible.
Jesus Christ will destroy every peace and every love that is not based on the disposition of holiness. Jesus is our enemy before He is our friend.
A cry for peace and unity may be of the Devil, quite as much as of the Lord. Be careful that you do not obtain inner peace and unity at the Devil’s price. Obtain them as Christ bestows them, through the alteration of your sinful disposition through the Holy Spirit.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Reconcile those who are enemies of the Cross, I pray, O God.
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God (1 John 3:9).
What Paul describes in the seventh chapter of Romans is a person’s human nature in the throes of two alternating dispositions. One disposition wishes to fulfill the lusts of the flesh, while the other disposition longs to obey the Spirit of God in all things.
Too many people think that this struggle is the highest possible experience of grace through the atonement of Jesus Christ. They suppose that all Jesus does is to disturb their natural peace, awaken them, and then taunt them with the consciousness of what they ought to be—without any possibility of being it.
But the regenerated life is not an “up and down” life; it is a life “up and up.” Regeneration divorces the disposition of the flesh and the disposition of the Spirit; and it then can produce a wonderful thing in your nature—a life without sin (1 John 3:9). This is not sanctification; it is another aspect of salvation. Sanctification makes little difference in your external life, but it makes all the difference inside. Yet even before sanctification, every man or woman who is born again of the Spirit of God has victory over sin!
PRAYER THOUGHT: O God, Your grace is sufficient for my needs. Your sanctifying power is adequate!
SUGGESTED READING: GALATIANS 5:16–21
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would (Gal. 5:17).
There is a dual nature in every regenerated soul. When a soul is born again, and is under the first glorious flush of the regenerated life, one often thinks, What could be more marvelous? But after a while, the regenerated soul becomes conscious of the debatings inside his heart. He now has to sign the death warrant of the old disposition of sin.
The first time Christ comes to the natural man as a Disturber, to do the work of conviction. The next time He comes to the awakened man as a Deliverer, in salvation. The third time He comes to the one who has been born again by the Spirit of God as a Disposer, in the work of entire sanctification. That is to say, Christ disposes of the old disposition of sin as soon as a person is willing to sign its death warrant.
We are told in 1 John 3:8, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” What is the work of the Devil? The disposition of sin. And this disposition Jesus Christ destroys in every regenerated soul that will let Him.
PRAYER THOUGHT: The warrings in the soul are never too fierce that we cannot conquer, O God, with Your help.
SUGGESTED READING: EPHESIANS 4:17–24
… Put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts (Eph. 4:22).
A divine disposition can take the place of the dark disposition of sin. This divine disposition is the last and glorious work of Christ to be experienced this side of heaven. This is the work of grace that makes us “more than conquerors.”
As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, Jesus Christ was made to be “sin,” not sins. Jesus took up my disposition of sin so that I might be free from sin—not free from my personality or my ruined human nature. Jesus came to dispose of that old monster of sin in human nature that has ruled and ruined it.
When you are born again, the Spirit of God soon brings you to the altar again. For what purpose? To destroy that old disposition of sin. Crucifixion is a cruel, ghastly death; but you and I must be willing to endure it. Our religion is a vain farce unless we have died to the disposition of sin. Our Lord is merciless to sin.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Thank You, Lord, for full deliverance from the sinful nature that shadows and threatens my spiritual life.
SUGGESTED READING: 2 PETER 3:10–18
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me (Phil. 4:13).
When I hear people shout, “I have the victory,” I feel like saying, “Go further. Let the Victor have you. Let God gain victories through you.”
God gains victories through every soul in whom He has gained the victory. There is no such thing as defeat or failure or discouragement in the vocabulary of the sanctified. If you are discouraged, let God search your heart. When the old disposition of sin is gone, God makes us “more than conquerors.”
Entire sanctification is an instantaneous, continuous work of grace, wrought by the mighty atonement of Jesus Christ. It is instant cleansing by the crucifixion of the “old man,” followed by a life of endless growth and victory.
PRAYER THOUGHT: My soul longs for more of You, God. I desire to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SUGGESTED READING: PSALM 139:14–17
Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear (Luke 14:34–35).
When God has you completely, you will never ask anyone if you are sanctified. You will not need to guess whether you are sanctified. It is grander inside than outside.
External sins never bothered me; I was brought up too carefully to be externally sinful. But when God the Holy Spirit convicted me of my disposition of sin, of my pride, and of my self-rule, I experienced such howling wastes of agony on account of the years God was not fully in control!
Fellowship with God grows grander, brighter all the way. No matter what your case is or what your circumstances are, if you go through on God’s line, He will save and entirely sanctify you.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Increase my faith, O God, that I may fully accept Your will for my life.
I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart (Ps. 101:2).
“Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1). Until you have done this, you may fall at the altar of God again and again, with weepings. There could be two reasons for this habitual feeling of guilt: Your spirit may indeed be wrong, or you may have guilt feelings that you ought not to have.
Feelings are a poor standard by which to measure your relationship with God. The disciple of Jesus is more concerned with doing right than with feeling right.
Show me the person whom Jesus Christ has saved from perdition and sanctified wholly, and about whom Jesus says, “Father, that is My work. I cleaned that life up; I sanctified that life entirely.” Show me the man or woman whom God—through the atonement of Jesus—has fully satisfied to the last aching abyss of the human heart, one who is truly in love with Jesus Christ. That person will be living for God, not just feeling favorably about Him.
The test of entire sanctification is not your experience, but your life.
PRAYER THOUGHT: May my life, Lord Jesus, be acceptable in Your sight.
SUGGESTED READING: MATTHEW 22:1–14
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:24).
I want the holiness that is given to me by God through faith. Holiness by faith lays hold on God and accepts from Him His righteousness. Hundreds fail by striving to give up things to God, striving to become holy by their acts and deeds; this is the righteousness of the law, not the righteousness by faith. The crucial thing is not the righteousness of my faith; it is the righteousness received “through faith.” Righteousness is the gift of God to one who knows he is a spiritual pauper.
This is why Jesus Christ would say to someone who came into the presence of the King without a wedding garment, “Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? … Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 22:12–13). Such a person may have gone under the name of one of the Lord’s saints, but he is not His handiwork. He is not the handiwork of God Almighty by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to thy cross I cling.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Through faith, O God, I cling to Your Word. Fill me with Your righteousness.
SUGGESTED READING: MATTHEW 19:16–22
Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me (Matt. 19:21).
The Lord Jesus Christ exercised a great fascination over people. Multitudes were attracted to Him, until He turned and withered their enthusiasm. The rich young ruler came to Jesus, fascinated; but when Jesus spoke, He said something that withered the young man’s enthusiasm. Jesus merely asked him to become totally His!
The Lord Jesus Christ is the enemy of every love, every relationship, and every aim that does not aid the eternal sanctification of the soul. Everything counts as naught until the Lord gets us absolutely remade from the inside—until the disposition of holiness is planted within us.
PRAYER THOUGHT: I yearn to be holy. Holiness of heart and life is my inward craving.
SUGGESTED READING: ISAIAH 58:1–7
Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high (Isa. 58:4).
Our Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples, “… When thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly” (Matt. 6:17–18). The true inward significance of fasting is that I have turned to God, either on account of my own sins or others, allowing Him to fulfill His purpose in me.
Isaiah 58 describes a pretentious sort of fasting. What direction will our feet take as soon as the vestments of fasting are taken off? What way will our faces naturally turn? What are our hands going to do? Unless the feet, the hands, and the face are images of the true condition of the heart, our fasting is a deep distress to God. He will not accept hypocritical fasting and praying.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Lord, help me to fast in the interests of Your kingdom.
SUGGESTED READING: HEBREWS 11:1–6
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him (Heb. 11:6).
Faith is something that God puts into you. Faith is the gift of God.
Many say, “Have faith!” But how can you have faith on your own initiative? It is impossible. Folks come to the altar and are told to “take God at His Word.” But how can you take God’s Word on faith until God has given you faith?
To be sure, you must seek God. But when you have done that, the Holy Spirit will make the words of Jesus warm to your heart; and with that will come faith. You then will say, “I never saw it so before! I have been so slow of heart to believe!”
PRAYER THOUGHT: Thank You, Lord, for faith.
SUGGESTED READING: MARK 1:22–27
And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy one of God (Mark 1:23–24).
The first attraction of Jesus is on the human basis, not the miraculous. The holiness of Jesus fascinates us because it is a distinctly human holiness.
Yes, Jesus attracts us by His holiness. And then He says, “If you want to be like that, you will have to meet the conditions.” This is not a judgment, but a statement of fact. Jesus does not command our allegiance. Yet the heart of every man or woman must confess Him as Lord and Master to obtain the fullness of life.
This idea is reflected in Napoleon’s statement at St. Helena: “Jesus has succeeded in making every human soul an appendage of His own.” Only in Jesus do we find what our hearts and minds crave.
I wish that everyone would obey this instinct of the heart. To see Jesus and refuse Him is to be condemned, as surely as to accept Him is to be saved.
PRAYER THOUGHT: I am human, Lord. Yet I am glad to know that, with my human inadequacies, I am fully able to follow You.
SUGGESTED READING: ISAIAH 6:1–13
Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts (Isa. 6:5).
God, by the Holy Spirit, may reveal in trying circumstances that you are not fully His. This revelation may be distressing. Yet it is by infinite mercy that God gives you such experiences. Only then can you be set blazing and passionately on fire as a devoted bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Regardless of your convictions or testimonies today, you may find yourself lacking when you stand in the presence of God. You may realize suddenly that your own efforts amount to nothing. Then the Lord can become what He should be in your life—absolutely all in all!
PRAYER THOUGHT: Possess my mind, my heart, my all, O God!
SUGGESTED READING: JAMES 1:8–12
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death (Phil. 3:10).
Let the Lord have His way. Beware of the tendency toward a sentimental admiration of Jesus, which withholds the reins of your life from Jesus’ hands.
The real enemies of Christ are not the poor fallen people on the streets, but those who profess holiness, yet never let Him eradicate the self-centered disposition inside of them. Oh, may you let God eradicate your self-centeredness today!
PRAYER THOUGHT: I fully surrender my life to You, dear Lord.
SUGGESTED READING: PSALM 91:10–16
Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you (2 Cor. 13:11).
What is death? When Jesus Christ grips my soul, death is a mere episode; death has no sting in it. The saint has a peace as deep as God, as unruffled as God, even in the face of death.
Do you understand that “the joy of the Lord is your strength”? We are so apt to look at the difficulty of the ways we are going; but the saint has God’s mighty peace in his heart, and he sees it is all right. Do not let your heart be troubled, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Oh, the bliss of Your peace! Your joy, Lord, is my strength.
SUGGESTED READING: LUKE 22:31–38
And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat (Luke 22:31).
Jesus dealt tenderly with the infirmities of His disciples. He seemed to overlook everything. But He never overlooked the point that He was after—the eradication of their self-centeredness. He brought every one of them to the place where he said, “I count not my life dear unto myself; no one for me, but Jesus only.”
Every one of His disciples was stamped with the realization of this truth: “I am Christ’s.” Jesus removed the self-centered principle from their hearts and implanted a personal, passionate devotion to Him.
May God the Holy Spirit drive this home to you as He has to me. We must live only for one thing: Jesus ever, Jesus only, Jesus all in all! That is what the Son of Man desires.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Implant within me, dear Lord, a renewed devotion to You.
SUGGESTED READING: JOHN 3:18–21
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil (John 3:19).
What kind of heart have you? Is it a self-centered heart? There is only one result to that—condemnation. No one is condemned for being bad. No one is condemned for doing wrong. The person condemned is the one who insists on saving himself, instead of trusting Jesus to save him.
Be careful, my friend! You may have a good testimony, a spotless record, and yet be condemned at the end of it all. Like Judas, you may have been with Jesus Christ for three long years, night and day; you may have been used of Him; but you may be exposed, expelled, and condemned by Him.
Judas was “the man with a double mind,” who served Jesus on one side but groveled to Jesus’ enemies on the other. Have you followed Judas’s example? Then confess it to the Lord. It is not a question between you and me, or you and any other human being, but a question between you and God.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Father, correct me when I stumble. Cleanse me of any tendency to betray You.
SUGGESTED READING: EPHESIANS 3:14–21
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God (Eph. 3:19).
A saint is not a person “with” a saintly character. A saint is a saintly character. Character, not ecstatic moods, is the essence of saintliness.
By the same token, you cannot have a change of “the will” and be the same person two minutes later. If your will is committed to the Lord Jesus Christ, all is changed.
I feel confident that God is preparing you for that divine stamp of the character of the Lord Jesus Christ. God wants to bring you to the place of being a true servant of His.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Heavenly Father, I resolve to allow You to reign supremely in my life.
SUGGESTED READING: 1 JOHN 3:18–24
Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God (1 John 3:21).
Too many people suppose that if they clean up their dealings with others, they will be right with God! But a reformed person is as much condemned as before. And it is not getting right with men, but with God, that leads to eternal life.
Sin is more than moral irregularity. It is a disposition to follow one’s own way rather than God’s way.
The Bible says that God condemns those whom the god of this age has blinded so that they do not realize the sinful disposition in their lives. If we deny our sinful disposition, we make God a liar and deceive ourselves.
PRAYER THOUGHT: I fully realize the grim consequences of sin. Deliver me, Lord, from my sinfulness.
SUGGESTED READING: JOHN 15:18–21
If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you (John 15:18).
Bearing the family likeness of our Lord will enable others to know beyond doubt that we have been with Jesus. The line of demarcation between the world and the saint is at the line of death—to this world. The saint is spoiled for this world and no longer shares the aims and ambitions of the world.
The saint, in short, bears the marks of unworldliness while in this world. He bears the evidence of a readjusted individuality.
The people who say, “Oh, I am no saint,” try to pass as modest, ordinary people among their peers. But such a statement means, “I do not care what Jesus Christ and the atonement can do.” To be “no saint” means that one is a proud sinner.
PRAYER THOUGHT: O God, I truly desire that Your power will enable others to see Christ in me.
SUGGESTED READING: DANIEL 9:1–19
We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments (Dan. 9:5).
When you read Daniel’s prayer, you find there are no excuses made by Daniel, either for himself or his people. One of the hardest things for a person to do is to face oneself with the holiness of God—to face oneself in the pure, unsullied light of God—and let God’s Spirit search into the avenues of the mind and the imaginations of the heart, into the purposes of one’s life, and to let God see all the wrong, the evil, and the self-seeking that are there.
That is what the Bible means when it challenges me to “set my face towards God” in repentance. Other religions ignore the fact of sin, and they tell us to ignore it. They tell us our only attitude is “to never remember what you have done; never think about it; keep in the sunshine and keep bright.” Jesus Christ does exactly the opposite. He brings us, by His Spirit, face to face with the sin in our lives.
The sign that His Spirit is at work is that true remorse begins to show itself. Our faces are set toward God, with no excuses.
PRAYER THOUGHT: With Daniel, I seek to be honest with God and true with my fellowman.