In the riches of divine grace, a wonderful
provision has been made for every one of
God's precious children.
A provision has been made for constant, unbroken
victory on the part of every child of
God.
A victory that's unaffected, absolutely unaffected by circumstances,
however adverse, however depressing these circumstances may be,
provision has been made by God for every
one of His children for literally an unbroken
victory, an unbroken fellowship.
The gift in large measure is unaccepted, partly
because of ignorance as to its nature and
value, and also on the ground of its
terms.
And its terms require a surrender which the
average Christian is unwilling to make.
A surrender that the average Christian is unwilling
to yield.
You see, things gotten cheap are usually cheap,
you know.
The things that you have to pay most
for are usually the things that are most
valuable and that we appreciate most.
It's kind of like that.
And the most extraordinary thing about the victorious
life is that although it's so clearly taught
in the scripture, yet it is so frequently
unrecognized by Bible students.
That's something that's been very difficult for me
to understand.
Why it is that so many men in
our pulpits today, so many of our seminary
students, so many, many of our spiritual leaders
have not recognized this wonderful life of unbroken
victory with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Many who have a thorough knowledge of the
Bibles know nothing of this truth experimentally.
And you cannot give to someone else, no
minister can give to members of this congregation
more than he has experienced himself.
And I do hope that there are many
ministers of the gospel following me in these
heart-to-heart talks.
Not because of me, not because I'm giving
them, but because they are based on the
very word of God.
And if you can catch the glory of
the truth that I've been trying to give
to you, then you can go into your
pulpits and give to your people something that
will revolutionize, will change their entire spiritual life.
It will change you as a minister.
I mean exactly that.
It's been one of the greatest truths that
it has been my privilege to receive from
the Master.
How is it that we're so slow of
heart to understand?
Probably the best way to put the case
is to describe at some length the inner
experiences of two men who had long been
devoted to the service of God.
Born again?
I would not question the fact that they
had never been born again.
If you have read regarding the lives of
these men, you would readily agree with me,
they were God's precious children.
Oh, sure.
They were devoted to the service of God.
And take for instance Hudson Taylor, a missionary
to China, was one of these men.
He's left a letter, and the letter was
written to his sister, a record of his
search for holiness, his search for a deeper
walk with God, a constant abiding in Christ
Jesus.
And in his letter, he tells of his
total inability to see how to get it,
how to obtain it, although the way lies
so clearly on the pages of the Scripture.
You cannot help seeing this wonderful truth as
you read the Word of God.
And yet, I suppose, only the Holy Spirit
can make it real to the hearts of
men and women.
And so, in this letter, written to his
sister, Hudson Taylor, that great missionary to China,
expressed the deep feeling, his great search for
this experience that I've been talking about in
these heart-to-heart talks.
I quote from the letter.
I prayed, fasted, agonized, made resolutions, read the
Bible more diligently, sought more time for retirement
and meditation, but all without effect.
Every day, almost every hour, the consciousness of
sin oppressed.
Then came the question, is there no rescue?
Must it be this to the end?
Constant conflict instead of victory?
Too often defeat?
I hated myself, I hated my sin, and
yet I gained no strength against it.
I felt I was a child of God.
I knew I was a child of God.
But how to rise to my privileges as
a child?
I was utterly powerless to see.
I thought that holiness, practical holiness, was to
be gradually attained by a diligent use of
the means of grace.
I felt there was nothing I so much
desired in this world, nothing so much I
needed.
And when my agony of soul was at
its very height, a sentence in a letter
was used to remove the scales from my
eyes, and the Spirit of God refielded the
truth of our oneness with Jesus.
And do you want to know?
Do you desire, even as I desired one
day, to know what was in that letter?
What was that sentence, just one sentence, that
gave to Him that which He had sought
so long?
All right, I continue.
Oh, this is thrilling.
This is priceless.
I read from the letter.
By faith a channel is formed by which
Christ's fullness plenteously flows down.
The barren branch becomes a portion of the
fruitful vine.
He is most holy who has most of
Christ with him.
Let me repeat that one sentence.
It's profound.
If you forget everything else that this letter
includes, if you do not hear another word
that I may say in this heart-to
-heart talk, remember this one sentence.
He is most holy who has most of
Christ with him.
It is defective faith which clogs the feet
and causes many a fall.
Abiding.
Not struggling or striving.
It's looking to Him.
It's trusting Him for present power.
Trusting Him to subdue all inward corruptions.
Trusting in the conscious joy of a complete
salvation.
A salvation from all sin.
Willing that He should be truly supreme.
That is not new, and yet, said Hudson
Taylor, it is new to me.
I seem to have gotten to the edge
only, but to the edge of a sea
that is bondless.
Not a striving to have faith.
Not a striving to increase our faith.
Not a struggle at all.
But a looking to the faithful one.
Looking to Jesus seems all we need.
Resting in the Lord.
Just resting completely entirely on Him for time
and eternity.
That is the secret.
And that was the letter.
That was the sentence which arrested Hudson Taylor's
attention.
That one sentence.
Not a striving to have faith.
But a looking off to the faithful one
seems all that we need.
And it's just that.
I shall never forget.
Years ago, after my conversion, at the age
of 14, in that little Methodist church in
Concordia, Missouri.
And then, it was sometime after that, God
so definitely gave me a call to the
ministry.
And that call was as definite as my
conversion.
Oh, it seemed that every atom of my
being cried out for more of Him.
I'd known physical hunger, but I have never
known a physical hunger in my whole life
that it was as great as the spiritual
hunger that I had for Him.
And I was so ignorant.
I was so stupid when it came to
spiritual things.
I'd had no training.
Nothing whatsoever.
And then, I shall never forget those holiness
camp meetings in Oscaluso, Iowa.
Oh, that's been years and years ago.
Do they still have those holiness camp meetings?
I don't know.
I only attended years ago, right after I
became a Christian.
And before I knew anything about the Holy
Spirit.
Before I knew anything about the baptism with
the Holy Spirit.
All I knew was I'd been born again.
Jesus had forgiven my sins.
And I can remember that old-fashioned sawdust
on the ground.
Maybe I'm talking to someone who has attended
one of those holiness camp meetings.
Maybe you were there years ago when I
was there.
So hungry for more.
And every time an altar call was given,
whether it was after the morning session, the
afternoon session, or night, there was a red
-headed, freckled-faced teenage girl who was the
first to walk down the aisle and kneel
in that sawdust, crying and crying, seeking holiness,
seeking some experience I knew not what.
After every one of those morning services, that
red-headed, freckled-faced girl would rush to
the altar, my head buried in my arms,
weeping and crying.
And when the noon hour would come for
dinner, everyone else would leave, but she was
still there.
She would still be there when the afternoon
service would begin.
She was the first at the altar when
the call was given again for those who
wanted to be completely holy and seeking holiness.
I never found what I was seeking there.
I was that girl.
I was seeking for some experience, some ecstasy.
It was years later that I found out
that Jesus is our holiness, and the one
who has the most of his holiness is
the one who has the most of Jesus.
You talk about the experience of holiness, of
sanctification, it is still a matter of seeking
Jesus.
You talk about the wonderful experience of being
filled with the Holy Spirit, it's still more
of Jesus.
And even after one has been filled with
the Holy Spirit, remember my friend, the Holy
Spirit himself always magnifies and glorifies Jesus.
He is most holy who has most of
Jesus with him.
No, it's not striving to have faith.
It's not striving for some experience, but it's
looking to Jesus, receiving more of him, and
that is your answer.
Please stop your machine at this point and
turn your cassette over.