Church of God, Carmichael, CA
D. O. Teasley, 1909
[Original Page Numbers]
fornication: that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor." 1 Thess. 4:3, 4. "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Thess. 5 :23.
3. His promise to keep. "And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father, keep through shine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are . . . I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." John 17:11, 15. "But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you. and keep you from evil." 2 Thess. 3:3. "Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." 1 Pet. 1:5. "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." Rev. 3:10. "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." Jude 24. "For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." 2 Tim. 1:12.
4. His promise to heal. "And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." James 1:15, 16. "And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him." Matt. 8:7. "Who forgiveth all shine iniquities; who heareth all thy diseases." Psa. 103:3. "And said, If thou wilt diligently harken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that heareth thee." Exodus 15:26. [12]
5. His promise of an eternal abiding place with Him. "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." John 14:2, 3. "Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thess. 4:17. "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 2 Cor. 5:1. "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." Rev. 7:16, 17.
"How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can he say than to you he hath said,
Ye who unto Jesus for refuge have fled ?
"Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismayed;
For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid:
I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.
' When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace all sufficient shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not harm thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
"The soul that on Jesus cloth lean for repose,
I will not, I will not, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no, never, no, never forsake."
Now, dear reader, if you are doubting God, you are doing so without a cause and against your reason and better judgment. Nothing can be more unreasonable than to doubt one whose name is faithfulness and truth, whose power is unlimited, and whose promise reaches you. It is [13] much easier to believe God than to doubt Him, for we have all reasons to believe and not one reason to doubt. Can you, will you, do you, firmly believe Him for all that He has promised you? Faith is the road to victory; doubting, the road to despair. Which way will you go?
"For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him." Matt. 21:32.
Some people try to believe who have not repented, so that they might believe. Such is impossible, and those who are thus striving to believe God can never succeed. There are others who have repented many times and are still repenting and yet do not —I shall not say cannot—believe. When you have repented of all wrong, forgiven all who have done aught against you, made restitution to all men to the extent of your ability, confessed that you are a sinner, and asked God's forgiveness, you are then on believing ground. You have a right to believe, you can believe, and nothing can hinder you from believing if you will. Repenting over and over again for the same offense will weaken your faith rather than strengthen it. Repent full and heartily, once for all; then believe God, live for Him, and doubt no more.
"How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?" John 5 44. Those who seek honor from men, pray, sing or preach to be heard of men cannot exercise faith in God for God is the object of our faith, and faith seeks only that honor which comes from Him.
The habit of doubting is a hindrance to faith. Those who have been in bondage to doubts and accusations often have a hard struggle to exercise faith for permanent victory; but by taking a stand on the Word of God against doubts and accusations such persons may be overcomers Even the mental habit of doubting can, through faith in God, he completely erased, and the soul once weak and faltering can be made strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. [14]
Trusting in emotions will cause one to lose sight of God's Word and fail to trust in God's promise, the only foundation for living faith. The glad emotions of a Christian's heart are truly sweet; but in order of time, faith comes before joy, for the joy of the Lord is the joy of faith, and God gives us joy and peace in believing. "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." Romans 15 :13.
Right belief produces right feeling, and wrong belief produces wrong feeling; for we feel according to what we believe, whether what we believe is true or false. A man who believes that he is right has good feelings even though his belief is a deception. This point is beautifully illustrated by an incident that I once read. The only son of a sick mother was lost in a forest. Sympathetic neighbors and friends volunteered to search for the lost child. The night was chilly and cold, and the mother thought only of the welfare of her child. As time after time the news came that the search was fruitless, the mother's pulse grew fainter and all could see that her end was drawing near. Hour after hour the weary night dragged by, and shorter and shorter grew the breath of the dying mother as she worried about her lost son. Finally, just before her end came the report, "The boy is found and is safe and well in the strong arms of a friend." At this joyful news the mother's aching heart was gladdened, and with a smile on her face she exclaimed, "My own dear boy is found," and smiling, breathed her last. She died happy in the belief that her boy had been found; but the report was a false one, for several days afterward the boy was found dead.
To further illustrate this point let me call your attention to the sorrow of Jacob. This hoary headed father, grief stricken, was brought almost to the grave in the firm belief that Joseph was dead, and yet he was alive and the chief steward of Pharoah's house. Why did Jacob grieve? Because he believed the report of Joseph's envious brethren and saw the coat of many colors, dyed, as he believed. with the life blood of his child. How deceiving. then, are the circumstances of life! and how dangerous to [15] risk the salvation of our souls on anything but the immutable Word of God!
We should not believe that we are right because we feel the weight of trials. Feeling right will make nobody right; but getting right, staying right, and believing that you are right, will make you feel right.
"Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." There can be no victory without battle, so those who wish to have spiritual victory must fight the good fight of faith. Sometimes the sedge may seem hard and long, but the greater the battle, the greater the victory.
Many have made shipwreck by trusting in their emotions to the exclusion of God's Word. The testimony of His Word is the strongest and surest evidence to your soul. Why, then, should you seek to found your experience on the emotions of the human heart? Our feelings are, so to speak, a harp with many strings, on which every circumstance of life may play a tune. Like the tide ever rising and falling, they rise under the influence of joy and prosperity, and fall before the winds of disappointment and adversity.
The Christian's heart is not altogether void of human emotions, yet his sadness is sweetened and his rejoicing tempered by the balm of faith. Your emotions may run as high as they will, only be careful to keep them in the bounds of reason, but when disappointments come and feelings fall, take care lest you fall below the line of faith, for faith it is that helps us to say, "Thy will be done."
The Bible is like a great cable let down from God to man, one end of which is welded to heaven's throne. If by faith you lay hold and keep hold of the cable, one of three things must be done—God's throne must be moved, the cable of His Word must break, or your soul must receive the good that it seeks. If you have not yet learned how to anchor your soul to the Word of God, you should at once tie your spiritual bark to the imperishable rock of truth by the eternal cable of faith. Then, like a ship tied to an immovable rock, your soul may rise on the wave crests of emotions, high in the atmosphere of ecstatic joy, or sink to the deepest depths of human despair, where angry billows threaten sudden destruction or lingering [16]