NOTHING UNHOLY WILL ENTER INTO HEAVEN!!!!! No matter how brilliant a beginning one may make in the divine life, if he does not learn to act from a sense of his obligations to God, his religious career will, in all probability be a short one. A road all the way down hill is not generally long. Good impulses are often of only short duration. When Lord Nelson, the greatest of Englands naval heroes, opened battle upon the combined fleet of France and Spain, a fleet nearly double the size of his own, he nailed at his mast head the signal, England expects every man to do his duty. If veterans in the excitement of battle need the inspiration which a sense of duty only can impart, much more do Christians in the conflicts which come upon them in the midst of depression and discouragement. Our course, as followers of Jesus, should be determined by what we ought to do, and not by what we feel like doing. We must, then, pay the highest respect to the commands of God. Let us consider one of these commands. But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. -- I Pet. 1:15. This is not an isolated command. It is found in varied forms in every portion of the Bible. It stands out prominently in every dispensation. Some of the early patriarchs furnish bright examples of obedience to its requirements. Enoch walked with God so closely that he was taken up bodily to the abode of the blessed without ever tasting death. Job demonstrated to the world that it is possible for a man to keep holiness, though he loses everything else. Daniel proved that a man can live a holy life in the courts of kings, surrounded by every temptation that pleasure and ambition can furnish. No command of the Bible is stated more clearly, and few more frequently, than the requirement to be holy. It is an important command. Viewed in whatever light it may be, it is one of the most weighty of all the requirements which God has made of man. Obedience to it is crowned with the greatest blessings God can bestow, disobedience to it makes the transgressor wretched for time and for eternity. You who have been accustomed to look upon holiness as simply a privilege which can be neglected with impunity; be convinced of your mistake. If you neglect it, you neglect it at no less a peril than the loss of Heaven. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lambs book of life. -- Rev. 21:27. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. -- Heb. 12:14. These are plain statements. The whole Bible is in harmony with them. No contradictory teaching can be found between its hallowed pages. Let us examine briefly a few of the features of this command. 1. It requires a holy nature. It calls upon us to be holy. It demands nothing less than a complete renovation of our moral natures. For this, the Gospel has made the most ample provision. The avowed object of Christs coming was that, We, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life. -- Luke 1:74, 75. Our sins are our greatest and most dangerous enemies. The angel who announced the coming of Christ said, Thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. -- Matt. 1:21. Then ask the Lord, for Christs sake, to save you from all your sins, and make you holy. All admit that he can save from the greater and grosser sins -- from murder and theft and profanity. Why can He not then save from the more subtle and refined sins, from envy and pride and discontent? What reason is there that He cannot? What text of Scripture is it which goes to prove that Christ cannot save from every sin, to which man is subject, those who obey Him? When God makes a requirement, He gives the ability to meet it. The two go together. He is not a hard master. He does not attempt to reap where He has not sown. All that is said about the natural weakness and depravity of our natures is true. But the Gospel proposes to make us new creatures. So the bare fact that God commands us to be holy is proof conclusive that He has made ample provision for us to be holy. Exceeding great and precious promises are given, on purpose that we may avail ourselves of them, and thus become partakers of the divine nature -- that is, become holy. (II Pet. 1:4.) The command we are considering requires us to be holy in our whole manner of living. Our holiness must be not only experimental but practical. It must manifest itself in all the ordinary affairs of life. The word conversation is one of the few words which have changed their meaning since King James translation of the Bible was made. Then, it meant ones general conduct, or behavior. Now, we restrict its meaning to familiar discourse with each other by word of mouth. In both senses God requires us to be holy. Our language must be on all occasions chaste and pure.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 08:40:46 +0000
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