When Saints Disagree

- When Saints Disagree

- Midpoint

When Saints Disagree

Rev. John R. Church, DD

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Copyright, 2011 – Holiness Legacy Collection

Author: John R. Church

Holiness Legacy Ministries

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Published with permission of Indian Springs Holiness Camp Meeting, Flovilla, GA

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REV. JOHN R. CHURCH DD

Winston-Salem, North Carolina

1899 -1984

Dr. Church, an approved evangelist of the United Methodist church, and a member of the Western North Carolina Conference since 1920, was one of the truly outstanding itinerant evangelists of 20th century Methodism.

In 40 years of evangelism, Dr. Church traveled over one million miles; preached in 31 colleges and universities; conducted over 1,000 series of meetings with some 40,000 seekers at the altar; and witnessed over 800 men and women answering the call to full-time Christian service under his ministry.

He has ministered in many of the largest camp meetings in America, including: Hollow Rock, Sychar, and Circleville in Ohio; Lakeland, Avon Park, and Brooksville in Florida; Wilmore in Kentucky; Bentleyville in Pennsylvania; and Indian Springs in Georgia. In his early ministry he shared the camp meeting platform with such noted evangelists as: Henry Clay Morrison, Joseph H. Smith, "Uncle Bud" Robinson, John L. Brasher, Samuel Logan Brengle, and C.W. Butler.

He received the Doctor of Divinity degree from Asbury College in 1942 and was on its Board of Trustees for many years: He was co-founder of John Wesley College, Greensboro. North Carolina, and served as Chairman of its Board for 28 years.

The dynamic power and success of his ministry, spanning more than half a century, is expressed by Dr. Church's own words: "It is still true that this is the will of God, even your sanctification...Men may quibble and question, but I choose to take my stand with the Word of God. I cannot do otherwise and still be a faithful minister of the gospel. Other men may feel that this is an elective course that can either be taken or left alone, but with the light and convictions I have on the subject, I could not be true to my own soul and fail to preach it...Every man must answer to God for his own ministry, but I would tremble for my own soul, if I should go into His presence without having preached this glorious truth."

WHEN SAINTS DISAGREE

The message I feel led to bring to you this morning is not a great, profound truth that will lift you up into the third heaven. In fact, it is just a corn bread sermon—a real, practical, down-to-earth truth. I feel very definitely, however, that the Lord would have us consider it together this morning. The message is based on an incident that is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, the 15th chapter, and I begin reading with the 35th verse. I trust that you will listen very carefully to the reading of the Word, because it's possible that you have never heard this passage of Scripture read as a lesson for a sermon.

"Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also.

"And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do.

"And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark.

"But Paul thought it not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work.

"And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus:

"And Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God.

"And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches."

I want to especially call your attention to the statement found in the 39th verse where it says: "And the contention was so sharp between them, and they departed asunder one from the other." I realize that is a very strange text for a fellow to take in a Holiness meeting. It's entirely possible that you have never heard this text used in your life; and yet, this Scripture that I have read, and this incident that we are told about, is a part of the inspired record that God has handed down to us. We are told that all Scripture is given by inspiration and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, and for instruction, in order that we may be perfect, thoroughly furnished in the work of God. I think this incident and some truths that are suggested by it will be profitable for us to consider, and not only to think about now, but to take home with us, and remember in the days to come.

Here we have the record of two great saints. They were real saints—real people of God, thoroughly saved, and thoroughly sanctified. Both of them filled with perfect love, both of them loving not only God, but loving each other. There isn't any question about their spiritual standing, because the Bible says that Barnabas was a good man, and when God bears witness to a fact that a man is a good man, then he is a good man. And St. Paul is recognized as one of the greatest saints that the church ever produced. He could testify, "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." He could testify that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus "hath made me free from the law of sin and death." He could testify to the Romans, "I am sure that when I come to you, I will come in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ." There isn't any question about these men being right with God, and there isn't any question about them being right with each other. They loved each other devotedly. Paul was especially indebted to Barnabas, because Barnabas was the man who brought him out of obscurity and introduced him to the Christian church.

Next to Jesus Christ, I imagine St. Paul was about as deeply indebted to Barnabas as to any living man of that day. These two good men, sanctified men, men who were wholly given to God, either one of them would have been willing to have surrendered his life for the cause of Christ, I imagine either one of them would have been willing to have died for the other, and yet, they had a disagreement. They didn't see eye to eye.

You remember that Paul decided they ought to make a return visit to the churches where they had preached the Gospel, and he said to Barnabas, "Let's go back and see how the churches are getting along." And it says that Barnabas determined. Did you notice that? He determined that John Mark should go with them, but Paul thought it not good. Notice the difference. Paul thought it not good to take him with them, because on the other trip he had showed the yellow streak. When the battle got hot, he had turned around and gone back home. And Paul didn't think it was a good idea to take a quitter along. And so he said, "No, I don't think we should take John Mark." And Barnabas said, "Well, I think we should." And Paul said, "I don't think we should." And Barnabas said, "Well, if he doesn't go, I'm not going." Then Paul said, "Well, if he does go, I'm not going." And it says the contention was sharp between them to the extent they departed asunder. One went one way, and another went the other. Please get this, Paul did not go off in a huff. It says, he went being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God.

Now, they both had the blessing. But they just didn't see eye to eye. And, friends, holiness people don't always see eye to eye. You don't always see things the same way. A sanctified man and his wife don't always see the same way. And the fact that a person is sanctified doesn't mean that he'll see everything as you do. And it doesn't mean that you'll see everything just as he does. And the fact that he doesn't see just as you do, doesn't mean that he is full of carnality. We're inclined to think that if everybody doesn't agree with us, they are just being bullheaded, and that it is a mark of carnality. But a person can be sanctified wholly, their motives pure as sunlight, and still not see eye to eye with you.

These men not only loved God, they not only loved

each other, but they loved the cause of Christ. And their motives in dealing with the problem were just as pure as sunlight. One of them was looking at it from one angle, and the other was looking at it from another angle. Barnabas no doubt said, "Now, here's a fine young fellow. He has great possibilities in him, and wonderful promise. He could make a great preacher." And he did make a great preacher. He wrote one of the four Gospels.

Barnabas said, "Now, he did fail us the other time, but I think we ought to give him another chance. I don't think we should cast him off just because he failed one time." And Paul said, "Well, now maybe that's right." But he said, "Listen, there is a lot involved in this thing. This is the cause of Jesus Christ that we are representing. We can't afford to take any chances on a fellow who might fail us and bring reproach upon the cause of Christ, and I don't think we ought to take him." You see their motives were perfectly pure. There wasn't anything selfish in it. It wasn't a matter of just having your way, it was a matter of seeing a thing from different angles.

Holiness people do that quite often. You can get in a trustees' meeting, or a Board of Stewards' meeting, where one fellow has one idea and another has another idea. Or you can get into a meeting of the Woman's Society of Christian Service or the Missionary Society, and one lady has one idea and the other has another.

You know we holiness people are pretty set in our ways. When we get a thing fixed in our craw, we're inclined to fight and bleed for it. And that's a commendable thing. That's one thing I like about the holiness people. They take this thing of being religious seriously. I said to a District Superintendent in my conference, who made fun of second blessing holiness and scoffed and sneered at holiness, even though he treated me royally: "you scoff and sneer at second blessing holiness, but I notice that when it comes to making appointments you get more second blessing holiness men in your district than any other man in the cabinet." I said, "Why is that?" He threw his head back and laughed and said: "These holiness cranks take this thing seriously. They are in dead earnest about it. I can get one of those fellows and put him out yonder on a circuit and he will start to work like a beaver. I can go fishing and he will do the job anyway. I don't care what he believes, I just want to get the job done." I laughed and said, "Well, that's a kind of a left-handed compliment, but it is a compliment." I'm glad that holiness people do take this thing seriously. We just can't give in over every little thing without thinking pretty seriously about it. So we see Barnabas had one idea and Paul had another idea. And the contention was sharp and they parted company.

Now it happened in this instance they were contending over an opinion. Not a conviction, but an opinion. One had one opinion and the other had another opinion. There is a difference between convictions and opinions. That's something holiness people need to see. It's helped me a great deal in my preaching, as a pastor and as an evangelist, to recognize that there is a difference between a conviction and an opinion. I have a few deep-seated convictions that I'd die for. If a man should stick a double-barrel shotgun up in my face and say, "Now you are going to quit preaching second blessing holiness or I'll blow your brains out", I'd say, "Brother, you might just as well pull the trigger because I don't intend to quit." I couldn't quit. I'd be a traitor to my own convictions if I quit preaching it because I am convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that it's God's word, and that it is God's will, and it's God's plan. But I have a lot of opinions that I wouldn't fight for. Some of them may not be worth a dime a dozen. There are a lot of people who have never come to see the difference between an opinion and a conviction, and sometimes they get to fighting for their opinions.

For instance, when I first got into the holiness movement up in North Carolina they were having a terrific battle over stockings. The women were having a battle over stockings. There was a black stocking crowd and a white stocking crowd. The black stocking crowd thought the white stocking crowd was worldly and godless, and the white stocking crowd thought the black stocking crowd were fanatics, if nothing else. And they just fought and wrangled and pulled hair over stockings. Well, now, the truth of the matter is, Mary, the mother of Jesus, didn't wear any kind of stockings. They didn't have stockings back in those days. I'm not contending that you ladies should stop wearing stockings, but they just didn't have stockings back in those days.

I have heard some evangelists get up and pitch and rear like a blind dog in a meat-house over women wearing toeless shoes. Well, now, they wore sandals in the days of Jesus. Mary, the mother of Jesus, wore sandals. I don't have any idea she painted her toenails red, but I imagine they were showing.

Now there are a lot of opinions. I have a good friend up in North Carolina, whom I love like a brother and with whom I have worked through the years, but we don't see eye to eye about things. I remember one day in a sermon he made the statement that any woman who wears her sleeves above her elbows is not sanctified. He said, "I don't care what she professes, she just hasn't got it." Well, a few days after that I was preaching on leprosy as a type of sin, and I was trying to bring out that no one but the High Priest could say who was a leper and who wasn't. You couldn't say, and your neighbor couldn't say, whether you were a leper or not; you had to go to the High Priest and let him say. Then I tried to make the application that God had a divinely appointed agent that is to convict us of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. God hasn't left it up to your neighbors to say, or hasn't left it up to you to say, you are supposed to lay your heart bare before the Holy Ghost and let Him say. In the course of my message, knowing that my friend and I loved each other enough that I could afford to say it, I turned to him and said, "Brother, you said something the other day I wish you hadn't said. You had no business saying it." I said, "You weren't preaching the gospel when you made that statement. You were merely expressing your own personal opinion." I said, "You have a right to your own opinion, everyone has a right to their own opinion, but since when did God make you the judge of who's got the blessing and who hasn't?" I said, "Thank God, there's going to be an older fellow at the gate than you or me." I thank God there's going to be somebody pass on me besides people. They don't know my motives. They don't know my heart. I thank God that when I stand there before the judgment bar that I'm going to be judged by Him, who loved me and gave Himself to die for me, that He might purify and make me holy.

Why, if I followed all the ideas people have about how I ought to dress I would be a freak. I'd be ridiculous. I'd be a laughingstock. I preached in Reading, Pennsylvania, some years ago, and there was a fellow attending that meeting, who went barefooted even though it was the middle of the winter with snow on the ground. He had long hair and a long beard and claimed to be a Nazarite. Not a Nazarene, but a Nazarite. He tried his best to convince me that I ought to let my hair grow out, my beard grow out, and that I ought to take off my shoes and go barefooted to be a true Nazarite. Some fellows say you mustn't wear buttons. Some fellows say you ought to turn your vest backwards, and this and that and the other. We all have our opinions.

Paul and Barnabas had their opinion about John Mark. St. Paul recognized his mistake later. He saw that he had misjudged John Mark, and he said, "Bring John Mark with you for he is profitable unto me." You know, brother, that's the thing that really proves you've got the blessing. When you're big enough to see that you were mistaken, that you were not infallible, that you erred in judgment, when you can just stand up and say, "You were right and I'm wrong." What a wonderful thing it would be if more of us had that kind of grace. But the thing I'm trying to get you to see is that both of these fellows had the blessing. They were sanctified, they weren't full of carnality, and they were not contending for their own way, but they were honest. They loved each other and they loved God. They loved John Mark, but one looked at it one way and the other another way.

Good holiness people do that. The world sometimes criticizes us because we don't always agree. Some holiness people get confused and think just because everybody on the Board doesn't see like they do, they think well, they haven't got the blessing, they are backsliders. Listen, when you go back home, recognize that you may be as pure as sunlight in your heart, and your motives may be as pure as the love of God can make them, but you may be mistaken, and your judgment may not be the best. Be big enough to give in to the other fellow sometimes. Just recognize that you don't have to fight for every opinion you have. The other fellow may have one that is better. When you give in you are not a compromiser; you. are being sensible and religious. We need a lot of that in the holiness movement today.

In the last charge I served before I went into full time evangelistic work, the church was split wide- open over the building of a parsonage. They had built a beautiful parsonage just before I went there. The man who was pastor at that time had a large family of children, either nine or eleven, I don't remember which. But he wanted to build a ten-room house, and he built it—a great big thing. Man, when we got there, we just rattled around in it like buckshot in a dish pan. In fact, we asked another family to move in to help us occupy the thing. Now, some of the people on the charge wanted to build a good house, but they didn't feel they needed a ten- room house. And they said, "Why, you're the only preacher in the whole conference who has a family that large, and another man might come along here with a wife and maybe one or two children. Let's build an eight-room house." And, of course, some people sided with him, and some sided against him. They built the ten-room house, but he split the church wide-open. When I went there, they had two Woman's Societies in the church. They wouldn't work with each other. And people had let that thing come in until it had caused a split that caused them to teach their children to hate one another. We had to have a revival to get it out. But, thank God, one Sunday morning the Holy Ghost fell, and melted people's hearts. They fell on one another's neck, cried, and confessed and begged one another's pardon. It fell about 11:30 a.m., and we stayed until 2:30 p.m., celebrating. You know, friends, sometimes in camp meetings, if something like that could happen, the Spirit of God could fall on us like Dr. Anderson was talking last night, until it melted our hearts, melted our wills and melted our determination, then we would love one another whether we saw alike or not.

GET RID OF PREJUDICES

There are two other incidents in the New Testament that tie in pretty well with this incident. They are very suggestive. One of them is the case of Peter. You remember after the Day of Pentecost, after Peter got the blessing, after he was wholly sanctified, God had some seekers down in Caesarea. A fellow named Cornelius and his whole household had been praying until their prayers had reached heaven. As Dr. Anderson brought out so strikingly last night, God listened. Their prayers had gone up as a memorial before God. Cornelius in his house built a monument that, in heaven, God looked at. He sent an angel down and said, "Now, you go up to Joppa and youH find a preacher." But while the Lord was down at Cornelius' house, he was also up in Joppa, because there was some work that needed to be done on Peter. He had the blessing, he had a pure heart, his heart had been cleansed from inbred sin, but had a lot of prejudices that he had inherited, that had been instilled in childhood. He just couldn't see how the Gentiles could possibly get the blessing. He didn't feel that he was called to preach to the Gentiles. Christ had given him the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven with the understanding that whoever he let in was to be let in, whoever was shut out would be shut out. But he said, "I'm not interested in these Gentiles. I'm not going to go down there and preach to them. Now, brother, somebody else can do that." God got him up on the housetop and he got to praying. When a fellow gets to praying, then God can talk to him. You know, prayer is a two-way proposition. You talk to Him and He'll talk to you. It is just as important to listen to Him as it is for Him to listen to you. It is just as important for you to be willing to do what He asks you to do, as it is for you to want Him to do what you ask Him to do. The Lord gave Peter a vision of a sheet let down from heaven with all kinds of creeping things in it, and the Lord said, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat." Peter, being a strict Jew, stepped back and said, "Lord, I'll have you to understand I never tasted anything common or unclean in my life. I'm a strict Jew." And the Lord said, "Don't you call anything common or unclean that I have cleansed." And he did that three times. And Peter said, "I came to see God is no respecter of persons. He that feareth God and serves him is accepted of him." Peter went to Cornelius and preached, and they had a second* Pentecost, because he got the prejudices knocked out of him. You know, there is a difference between God fixing up our hearts and fixing up our heads. Uncle Buddy Robinson said one time, "When God gets ready to fix up a man's heart, he puts it on a lightning express and sends it through a non-stop flight, but sometimes he brings our head through on a slow freight with a lot of stops on the sidings on the way." And that's true.

One morning about one o'clock up yonder in Old Rutherford College in North Carolina, God poured His Holy Spirit out into my soul, and the refining fires burned out the dross and consumed the impurities until there was nothing there but perfect love and perfect peace. I know it happened. But, friends, I know that for more thirty-two years he has been working on this old head of mine, and it still has a lot of kinks in it. I imagine if you will examine yourself pretty closely, you will find that you have some prejudices in you. It may be some secondhand notions that have been handed down to you by other people. There are a lot of people to whom you can just say "Democrat" and they are ready to jump down your throat. You can just say "Republican" to others and they are ready to climb your frame.

I was in Missouri sometime ago, and I was getting my tank filled up with gas. I have a keen sense of humor. As the old fellow was filling up my tank, I told him a joke I had heard about a preacher, who attended a Republican banquet, and was asked to return thanks. He said, "I beg to be excused." And the toastmaster said, "Well, why not? You're a preacher and you're supposed to pray whenever you are called on." And the preacher said, "Well, I have two good reasons. In the first place, I don't think it would do any good. In the second place, I don't want the Lord to know I'm here." Well, I told this joke to this old fellow, and he said, "Hum", and I saw it hit him wrong. He was a Republican and he couldn't laugh at a Republican joke. I laughed and said, "Now, brother, that's one of those jokes you can turn around and tell it either way." I said, "It will work just as good on the Democrats as it will on the Republicans, and just as good on the Baptists as it will on the Methodists." I said, "It's just one of those jokes that can be made to fit any group of people." When he saw the point, he threw his head back and yelled, and said, "Boy, you just wait until old Tom Brown comes back up here, I'll sure burn him down." But you see, he was so narrow in his political affiliations that he couldn't even laugh at a joke on his crowd. We all have a good many prejudices. And listen, friends, we have to be mighty careful. Don't you get the idea that your crowd is the only crowd, and that God doesn't love anybody but your little church. He said, "I have other sheep that are not of this fold."

I had a lady come up to me over here in Braden- town sometime ago. She said, "Do you think a Calvinist could be saved ?" "Why," I said, "certainly, sister, multitudes of them are saved, and some of them are sanctified." Their hearts are a lot better than their theology. And I believe that. I believe a Roman Catholic could be saved and sanctified. In fact, some of the great saints of the past were members of the Roman Catholic Church. But you know, friends, you can be blinded by your prejudices. Actually, I've seen people in the Holiness churches who couldn't possibly see how a man could be in the Methodist Church and have the blessing. "There must be some question somewhere—there must be something wrong with you, brother. Surely you're not true."

Peter is not the only fellow who needed to have the race prejudices knocked out of him. There are many professing Christians today that need to have a vision that will bring them to see that God hath made of one blood all nations that dwell upon the face of the earth. We need to see that God loves all mankind regardless of the color of their skin or the place where they live. We must come to see that we can't hate any person of another race and still have the love of God in our hearts. We must come to see that Christ taught that we are to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. We can't treat our fellow man, of another color or creed, with contempt and still have the love of God in our hearts. If there ever was a time when people needed to learn this great lesson it is today.

I recognize that this matter of desegregation is a big one and there is no easy solution to it. I recognize that we have all types of people to deal with and you can't settle the thing by just saying, presto change, and it will be done. It is going to take time and patience to work it out in many places in the South, as well as in the North, but I am saying that if we are really Christian then we will treat every man as a brother, and will give him the proper respect and treat him with courtesy and love. If you don't do that then you will soon find that you are out of step with the Christ, who came to die for all mankind. May God help us to get rid of all such narrow views, and bring us to the place where we can be as Christ would have us be.

Many people are like Peter in that they have had these prejudices handed down to them. They have been taught to many people by their parents. It is too bad that so many people follow blindly along such lines. We must have a vision that brings us into line with the Lord of our life.

INFLUENCED BY OTHER PEOPLE

Now the Lord had to knock the prejudices out of Peter. But you know, even after that, even after that great experience at Joppa, and down in Caesarea, when God poured His Spirit on Cornelius and his household, Peter went to Antioch and at first he started associating with the Gentiles and eating with them. But, you know, there were some straight-laced Judaizers who came down there. Brother, they were strict. They hewed to the line. They said, "You can't get in unless you're circumcised. You can't get in unless you keep the law. You can't get in unless you do this and that and the other. Anybody who associates with the uncircumcised hasn't got the blessing." Now listen, friends, we holiness people had better watch out right there.

I was at Sharon Center Camp some years ago. Jimmy Gibson was the young people's worker. He said he stopped in a drug store to get something and one of the girls at the counter, who was smoking a cigarette, had rouge all over her face, and lipstick, looked like one-fourth inch thick, said, "I think I will go out to the Holiness Camp Meeting tonight." And another girl looked at her, and said, "You go out to the Holiness Camp Meeting, painted up like that! Why, they wouldn't let you in!" Whenever the world gets to feeling that way about us, we'd better go somewhere and get down and pray. We don't have to become like the world, and dress like the world. But listen, friends, Jesus sat down on a well curb and talked to a woman who had had a number of husbands, and was living in open adultery. And He could look on a woman who bathed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair, and say, "Neither do I condemn you." He could look at a woman who had been taken in open adultery and brought to Him to be condemned. He said "Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more."

He doesn't want us to be of the world, but we are in the world, and we're to be the light of the world, and the salt of the earth. God wants to rub us in on people. God wants to make us a blessing to people. He doesn't want us to organize a "holier than thou club", and build a ten-foot fence around us and put a three-strand barbed wire on top and place five guards at the gate to keep everybody out who doesn't have the blessing. He wants us to tear down the fence and go out into the highways and hedges, and hunt people who are bound by sin.

But Peter let the pressure get him. And you know the pressure can get pretty strong sometime. You have to have grit in your craw, and iron in your blood, and you have to have a backbone like a steel girder to be true to God in the Holiness Movement. A lot of people think if they just get in the Holiness Movement, all their battles will be over. No, they won't. There will be pressures brought to bear on you in the Holiness Movement. And if you're not mighty careful, they can swing you off and get you out of the will of God, and get you to doing things that will drive people from Christ instead of leading them to Him. Peter quit associating with the Gentiles. Paul in his letter to the church of Galatia said, "i withstood him to his face, for he was to blame." They are still sanctified. Both of them have the blessing, but Paul said, "I withstood him to his face, for he was to blame. He was wrong."

Now listen, friends, that time Paul was right. And he wasn't contending for an idea that time. He was contending for a great eternal principle, a great eternal truth. In fact, he was contending for the basic truth of the Christian religion, and that is salvation by grace through faith, and faith alone. Paul stood up and went to the church at Jerusalem, and they had a church council, and he wouldn't back down a bit. If Paul hadn't had the moral stamina, and the intensity of purpose to have taken his stand on that great eternal truth of salvation by grace through faith, then the church would have been wrecked. If Paul had tacked circumcision, and this thing and that thing, and the other thing, onto salvation, the church would have been crippled and paralyzed.

Friends, you may run me off before this camp is over, but listen, we holiness people need to keep that great eternal truth, the simple truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our thinking. If we don't mind we can become legalistic. We can begin to tag this thing and that thing, and the other thing onto salvation, and make it a necessity of getting saved, and we can build up barriers and keep people out of the Kingdom of God. You've got to do this and you've got to do that, and you've got to do the other.

A lady down at Miami, at the Central Church of the Nazarene, told Mrs. Church and me that when she was a girl a beautiful little girl came to the altar seeking Christ. Her heart was broken and she was weeping her way to God. But she had naturally curly hair. It was just naturally curly, in ringlets all over her head. And some evangelist (thank God, I don't know who he was—I don't want to know who he was) went down and took hold of one of those curls and pulled down and said, "Daughter, if you want to get right with God, go home and get the kinks out of your hair, and then come back and find God." Now, can you imagine Jesus dealing with a seeker like that? Think of it!

I remember a number of years ago, when I was a worker at this camp, there lived in this town at that time a man and his Wife named Cox. I learned to know them at Asbury College. They were devout, consecrated people. They lived here in Lakeland, and they had a neighbor who lived close to them for whom they had been praying for years, that God would open his eyes and that he would see his need of salvation. They had begged him time after time to come to this camp meeting. And he came. I'll never forget it. He sat right back there where that gentleman is sitting by that post. I'll never forget I preached that night on the blood of Jesus Christ. When I gave the invitation he didn't wait for them to sing the second verse. He started down the aisle with the tears streaming down his cheeks. He hadn't been to church in years. He knelt over here and was praying earnestly; when two young fellows, who were earnest, who were sincere, but who had more zeal than judgment, got down to pray with him. One of them happened to spy a package of "Camels" in his shirt pocket. Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not upholding tobacco nor making any defense for tobacco. But those two boys jumped on that fellow about the package of cigarettes in his shirt pocket. They got to arguing with him, and he became so indignant that he walked down the aisle and said, "I'll never come back again." Now, of course, he did wrong, but he was a sinner, blinded by sin. He shouldn't have taken that kind of attitude; but, friends, I firmly believe that if those boys had told him that God loved him, that Jesus Christ had died for him, that the Holy Ghost could help him, and that he could get victory through faith in Christ, and had gotten him saved, and then let God talk to him about the cigarettes, it would have been far better.

But Paul was contending for a great eternal principle. Now listen, friends, it is a principle. The Gospel is good news. The Christian religion is the only religion in the world that offers salvation from sin by faith and faith alone. The vilest sinner who walks the face of this earth today can come to God repenting of his sins and saying, "In my hand no price I bring, simply to thy cross I cling." "Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me", and have his sins forgiven, the shackle broken, and be liberated and brought to live for Christ because he has become a new creature in Christ Jesus. Paul stuck by his guns because he was contending for a principle.

This truth of salvation by grace through faith is the very heart of the Christian religion. When you cut that out, then you cut the heart out of the Gospel. The Christian religion is the only religion in the world that offers salvation by faith and faith alone. All the other religions of the world are religions of works. The Christian religion says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." This is the heart of the Gospel. This is the good news. I fear that much of the preaching that we hear today is not the Gospel. It, in many instances, is made up of a lot of opinions, that people have collected and they label them the Gospel, but it is not the Gospel.

I believe in repentance with all of my heart. I preach on repentance. In fact, I don't believe that anyone can exercise saving faith in Christ until they have first truly and earnestly repented of their sins. Faith is of the heart. It is with the heart that man believes unto salvation. Saving faith is more than just giving mental assent to a body of truths, it is surrendering yourself to a person.

I believe in restitution. I had to make restitution after I got saved. In fact, I had to be witting to make it before I could get saved. Now while I believe in restitution, yet I am convinced that it does not necessarily have to come before salvation. I believe you have to be willing to make it, if you know about it. However, sometimes workers at the altar make restitution a condition of being saved. They tell seekers that you have to make the restitution before you can be saved. I don't believe that is true. I believe you have to be willing to make it, but you can get saved and then make it. In fact, I have known of many people, who, if they had waited until they got everything fixed up in order to get saved, would have had to wait for years. They got saved and then made the restitution.

Some years ago I sat in a camp meeting and listened to Dr. Paul Rees preach a sermon on restitution. It was a great message and I approved of it. But he took for his text that verse in Acts 19:18, "And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds." While he was preaching, I could not help but think of the divine order of the text. they first believed. Then as a result of that they came and confessed and shewed their deeds and burned their books. They did it because they had been saved by faith, and not in order to be saved. Many people will do a lot of things if they ever get saved, but they will never get saved until they believe. They will do it because they are saved and not in order to get saved.

Many times in camp meetings I have heard preachers speak in a sneering manner about people taking salvation by faith, or taking sanctification by faith. Now I know there is a lot of shallow, superficial teaching these days about just taking Christ as your Saviour and Sanctifier. Much of it is nothing in the world but just a mental process, and no doubt many people do profess who DO NOT POSSESS salvation. While this is no doubt true, yet we as holiness people do need to see that salvation is by faith and faith alone. We must remember that if we ever get anything from God we will have to take it by faith. That is the only way we can get it. Without faith it is impossible to please God. He that comes to God must believe that He is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. We are justified by faith. We are sanctified by faith. We live by faith. We are kept by the power of God through faith. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. After the emotion is gone and the feelings have passed away, we are still saved by faith. Your emotions may be at a low ebb, but if you are all on the altar, you are still sanctified by faith. This is true not because you feel like shouting. It is true because God says it is true. He cannot lie. Stand on His Word and not on your feeling.

When I watch some workers dealing with seekers at the altar, or in other places, and listen to them give instructions, I can't help but think of the way Jesus and Paul dealt with seekers. Jesus healed a man one day, and then later He said to him, "Sin no more lest a worse thing come upon thee." When that man was let down through the roof into His presence, He said, "Thy sins be forgiven thee." When He found Zaccheus up a tree, He said, "Come down and I will go home with you for dinner." After they got home, Zaccheus saw himself and told the Lord he would make things right. But Jesus went home with him. Then as a result, Zaccheus was willing to do anything for Him.

Paul would go into the most wicked cities and preach Christ unto people and they would believe. After they had been saved, then they began to set things right. In fact, when Paul and Silas were cast into prison and the jailer was convicted, he asked, "What must I do to be saved?" Paul said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." I have often felt that if that had been some preachers whom I have heard, they would have said, "Brother, if you expect to get right with God, you are going to have to get down here and apologize to me. You will also have to get some water and wash my back and fix me up something to eat. Then if you will agree to get up in public at the revival and make a public confession of your low-down dirty ways, then perhaps the Lord will meet your needs. But remember, you have to fix things up before you will ever find God." 0, how easy it is for us to draw up our little blueprints and lay out our little plans of what people have to do. Jesus made the way plain and simple so everyone could get in. After you get in, then you will see a lot of things to do. In fact, the Holy Spirit may be bringing things to your remembrance for months and even years after you get saved, or even sanctified.

It is possible that if the Holy Spirit had showed us everything that was going to be involved in our salvation, it would have frightened us so we would never have been willing to undertake the thing. I know in my own life, that after I was sanctified, things came up, which, if I had known they were in that package I was laying on the altar, I may never have had the courage to have said "Yes" to all the will of God. But I did make my consecration, and down through the years, as different things have come out of the package, I have found it in my heart to say, "Yes, Lord, I meant that too. I did not know it was in there but I want Thy will done." In fact, after all these years I have not yet found out all that was in that bundle I laid on the altar. While I don't know what was in the bundle, yet I am not uneasy or afraid. He has given me grace for every emergency thus far, and I don't think He will fail me now. It has been His grace that has made it possible for me to walk this way, and I believe His grace will see me through. He giveth more grace and then some more grace. In fact, if it were not for His grace, I could not make it. I not only needed the blood for my salvation and sanctification, but I have needed it every moment since. Thank God, His blood keeps me clean.

Brother, whatever you do, don't sneer at salvation by grace through faith. If it were not for that, then we would all be sunk. We are not going to get through on our holiness. We have to have holiness to get through, but please remember that you been made a partaker of his holiness. It is his and not yours. It is God's gracious gift to you. He gave it to you not because you were worthy of it; He gave it because of His great love for you. Don't ever boast of it. Give Him the glory. Let your testimony be the kind that will exalt the grace of God and not you.