CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Luke 15:8-9
Women in the Bible are oftentimes used as a type of the church. Jesus speaks of the bride, referring to the church. In the incident of Isaac and Rebekah, Eleazer is used as a type of the Holy Ghost seeking a wife for Christ. As the servant of Abraham, he sought a wife for Isaac. Hannah is another character oftentimes used as a type of the church. She was barren and it was a disgrace, a reproach for her as a bride, not to bear children. So it is a reproach for the church not to have spiritual births.
What has the church lost? One thing, she has lost her respect by her looseness with the world. James says, "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." When we are converted, we are in love with Jesus; when we get sanctified, we are espoused, or in our speech, engaged, to Christ. To flirt with the world makes us spiritual fornication’s, and the worldly church members have disgraced the worthy name of our Christ and have caused the sinners of the world to lose respect for her, the same as the women of today have done.
When I was a boy, the women were respected. If a man would meet a woman, in speaking to her, he would tip his hat, but not so now. Why? I will tell you why. The woman has lost her self-respect. She bobbed her hair, which the Bible forbids; she painted her face; stuck a dirty cigarette in her mouth; dressed immodestly; and became bold and careless. Her brazen performances are disgusting to a man that is a man. The Bible says she is to be chaste, a keeper at home, not a gad-about, running to liquor joints, running the streets with only a pair of shorts and a little fixin' about her breasts. Shame on such disgraceful folk. Many mothers, if they should be given that worthy name, are not rearing their children to have any self-respect. And many school activities are a disgrace to decency. No wonder we have so many nudist colonies in the U. S. Shame! Shame! if there is any shame. The Bible speaks of a time when "they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush." With all that is lust-breeding, it is no wonder that American homes are going on the rocks and the divorce courts are crowded. You can open the window and cool off a little here, but that crowd will never cool off in hell.
The church has lost her self-respect by being worldly. The Word says, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord."
The church has lost her burden for souls. Where are the all nights of prayer, the groanings for souls, in pain to be delivered, weeping over the lost. Oh, I know there are a few who travail, but where are the rest? When the church loses her burden, she loses her vision. "Where there is no vision, the people perish." They become blind leaders of the blind and they shall both fall into the ditch, or pit. When they lose the burden, they get at ease and the Bible says, "Woe unto them that are at ease in Zion." When she has lost her burden and her vision, she has lost her power.
When the church has lost her power, she caters to programs and social entertainment’s until the house of God is a place of social gatherings. She is Godless, powerless, burdenless, and blind. May God help the few who remain to pull together and be at peace one with another. It is Satan's work to scatter the power of the holy people. It was Jesus' prayer that we might all be one.
Women, get the light; get your broom and go to seeking and keep at it, for what you have lost you must find for your survival. The average holiness church has lost so much of what it once had that the people are going after a false holiness because it seems to have more life. Who is to blame? We are, for not having more fire and glory in our services. We have some churches that have not desired so much the things of the world, but they have fussed among themselves, and shown such a critical spirit that they have driven the hungry away.
Neither fanaticism nor formalism is the way. John Bunyan's Christian, in Pilgrim's Progress, saw two lions chained by the way. He became frightened, then he saw they were chained. If he would keep directly in the middle of the road, he could pass without harm or danger. So is it with us, if we will keep in the middle of God's perfect will, He will keep us from dead formality or wild fire.
When the woman found what she had lost, it was then that she called in the outside folk and they came. They made merry and had a jubilant time. Oh, may God help us to see our duty and not shirk it. A burdenless church does not have genuine live births. May He help us to see our part to do to have genuine converts to Christ -- not to a movement, but the Christ; healthy children that will have a good appetite and desire the truth of God and grow thereby. Oh, the weaklings, the sickly, the dwarfs, the blind, the cripples in the so-called church! Many times the child's deficiency and blindness is caused by his parents' not being what they should have been, and sometimes by a deficiency of certain minerals or calcium or vitamins. May God help the preachers to feed the people not just on one ration, but on the whole Word of God, so that the ones born into the kingdom will he strong and of a sound mind.
I knew a child who did not develop properly. It was not the child's fault. His mind did not develop right. He did not grow like the rest of the children and his body was deformed. The doctor could not help the child. The cause lay with the mother because she had a deficiency of what the child needed before birth. There lies the trouble with many folk today. The so-called church has been so low on what she needed to have strong spiritual children that those children have not developed right. Many cannot see harm in the things that the Bible condemns. Some never come to the knowledge of the truth because they cannot develop their minds. Oh, preachers, feed the flock on the whole Word of God, for Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Oh, church, awake, awake! put on thy beautiful garment. Be clothed in righteousness and true holiness; feed on the whole Word of God that you may have strength to bring forth children for God.
Let us examine ourselves and see if we are trying to pick our rations and thus becoming lean in our souls and weak and subject to the devil's epidemics, such as unbelief, doubts, fear, jealousy, envy, strife, haters of those that are good, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, worldly minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Can not we see this condition wherever we go? Just put on something of worldly pleasure, and such an interest! Oh, yes; they will pat you on the back, and compliment you for your broad-mindedness, but when it comes to the truth of God, they are not interested. Such an attitude breeds modernism, formalism, and deadness, and sends up a stinking savor to our God. It will paralyze a church, kill the good, starve the Christians, grieve the Holy Spirit, and cause apostasy to set up its authority where the power of God once reigned. That has happened to many.
Let us take heed, lest Jesus come and find us followers of the terrible whore of Revelation. We cannot do these evil things and be guiltless. "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord." If we will do so, He will receive us unto himself. We are to be in the world, but not of it, even as He was not of the world. Folk, keep pure, keep the faith once delivered to the saints. These are the days of the falling away. Keep prayed up, in touch with Him, with hearts made pure and with the glory of God on our souls. That is what it will take to be prepared for His coming.
We cannot be Whisperers and backbiters and at the same time glorify the Lord. We must lay down our petty notions and live by the Bible. To be sure, not all who profess to be Christians will see eye to eye, but we must love the children of God and, if we have the Spirit of God, we will. "Oh, yes, but they don't follow me." Just who do you think you are anyway? The Word tells us to follow Jesus. Watch out for selfishness and littleness; all genuine born-again people who continue to walk with God are His children and my brothers and sisters in the Lord. Beware of Phariseeism. May God make us small enough that He can use us, and big enough to stand for all that for which He stands in the spirit of meekness.
The dancing, card-playing, and theater-going crowd never pray a soul through. They may belong to some religious movement, but not to God. They are in an apostate condition, compromisers with the world, apostles of Satan, and promoters of dead works. "Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven," saith our Lord.
Not long ago, I was asked to pray with a woman at an early morning prayer meeting. The woman said, "Brother Poe, I wish you would pray with me. I don't have the victory." I said, "Sister, are you willing to take the old-fashioned way to get it." She said she was, and did. I was taken to one side by one in authority and told that I had grieved the Spirit by what I had said. I said, "The only spirit grieved is that compromising spirit." May God pity those who are putting the damper on and shutting the mouths of some. I swear allegiance to the right. I intend never to let the devil pull the fire out of my soul by compromising with the black vamps of hell and with sin. Just count me out there. If anything, I want more fire and glory on my soul. I do not want to come up to the judgment with the blood of souls on my hands because I saw sin in the land and did not warn people to flee the wrath to come, and because I failed to tell them that the love of Jesus could change them until they would not want the world or sin. Amen.
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