Tag: Peace

Categories
Messages

Tozer Talks

“Jesus Stood in the Midst of Them”

PDF Formatted TranscriptDownload

Jesus Stood in the Midst of Them

Pastor and author A.W. Tozer

January 30, 1955

In the book of Luke, the 24th chapter, and verse 36, Luke 24:36. And as they thus spake, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, peace be unto you. As they thus spake, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, peace be unto you.

Now into the world of complex religious observations, a sort of religious jungle where though the sun shone brightly, it was prevented from being affected by the very multiplicity of duties and rituals and observations laid upon the people. And into the midst of all this came the Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and He shone brightly there. He was to be God’s salvation. He was to be God’s cure, the cure for all that was wrong with the human race. And He came to deliver us from our moral and spiritual disorders. For the moment we’ll not mention that He came also to deliver us from our physical world in that day when our Lord comes and our bodies are glorified. And mainly He came to deliver us from our moral and spiritual disorders.

And then He came to deliver us also from our remedies. One of the heaviest burdens that has ever been laid upon the human race is religious burden. And it is a self-medicating burden. It is an effort on the part of men who are conscious of their moral and spiritual disorders, to medicate themselves and get better by their own treatment.

One of the outstanding, as preachers say, outstanding examples of course, is that in India where pilgrims go like an inchworm, falling flat face down on the ground, marking where their forehead is, and then putting their foot where their forehead was, and inching again, and thus traveling clear to the river Ganga, the Ganges River, Mother Ganga, they call her, and washing themselves there. And there have been those who have fasted until they were thin and with spikes in their shoes and have hidden themselves in caves. Everything has been tried down to the present hour, to try to medicate, try to treat ourselves. You know how it is out in the world, down past the last thousands of years, they have tried a little of everything to cure themselves, men have of various diseases.

I remember when I was a lad that there was a story that if you were to take a, you had a wart, unseemly wart on your hand and you wanted to get rid of it and who wouldn’t? You were to take hair from a horse’s tail, wrap it around the thing, and then at a certain time, I think the dark of the moon or something, you were to take it out and bury it where the water dripped off of the house. Then when it had rotted, your wart left. And the funny part about it was, they did. And I don’t understand of course. The only thing I can see is that a wart must be psychologically-caused and that was a psychological cure. But that’s only one of the many things. And I remember taking things when I was a boy that never should have been fed to anybody. But my old German grandmother and my country people, they fed you anything, you know, down through the years if you were to study it up a little, you would find there’s scarcely anything that flies, swims, crawls, or grows, or just is, that hasn’t been powdered and fed to somebody to try to cure them of their diseases.

The great old English bard kidded the public about it in that passage where he talks about the charm, you remember the medicine that would heal anything he says, eye of newt and the toe of a frog and wool of a bat and a tongue of a dog, adders fork and blind worm sting and lizard leg and a owlet’s wing. Add there too a tiger’s chandran for the ingredient of the cauldron. Cool it with a baboon’s blood and then your medicine is firm and good. Well, that’s supposed to be very funny, but it’s not funny really because it’s a fair description of what’s been fed to people during the years to try to cure them of their diseases.

And the same thing is true in religion. We have invented almost everything under the sun to try to cure us. But the cure had already come. Jesus Christ had come. And He had not come to launch a new religion. Kindly remember, Christianity is not a new religion. They didn’t come to launch a new or better or finer religion. He came Himself to be their religion. He came himself to be God’s salvation unto the ends of the earth. He did not come to delegate power to others, so that others could heal or cure or bless. He came to be the blessing. He was Himself that. It was not through a system of which He was the head. Christianity is not a system with Jesus Christ, the head of the system. Jesus Christ is everything. And He by direct and personal and intimate touch with the human soul and mind, He was to deliver them.

Now that’s shown throughout the entire Bible. That’s not my interpretation. It says, look unto Me and be ye saved. And God said of His Son Jesus, Thou shalt be My salvation. Thou shalt be my salvation unto the ends of the earth. And it says, thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sin. And it says, the old man of God who had waited around the temple, when he saw the baby Jesus, took Him up in his arms, held Him, and looked down at Him and said as he raised now his eyes to heaven, let Thy servant depart in peace. For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.

So, I say to you that are in doubt or you that are not instructed or you that are not sure that it is Jesus Christ Himself that Christianity offers to you. Now I know the churches are all confused because of the introduction of human ideas, as if this self-medication idea has raised up a great, vast toadstool. This, this huge mustard tree has grown up. But really, all Christianity offers is Jesus Christ the Lord. It offers that and that is all that needs to be offered, for He is enough. And your relation to Jesus Christ is really all that matters in this life.

Now, that is both good news and bad news. It is good news for those who have met our Savior and who know Him intimately and personally. It is bad news for those who hope to get into heaven some other way. Some of this self-medication business, this wool of a bat and tongues of a dog kind of religion that we create. And we write books about it, and get it into our church minutes and it gets on our books. And the first thing you know, we’re trusting to those things. And people have this or that done to them. They’re always inventing something, where down over the centuries, something to do to somebody. They wanted to do something to them, run and do something to their bodies, forgetting that Jesus, our Lord, said, don’t worry about your body, but about him that can kill the body. Think about your soul and the one who can destroy your soul in hell.

The human body is the tabernacle in which a man lives. You might as well rub liniment on the outside of your brick house to try to cure the bursitis in your elbow and on the inside as to put anything on a man’s body and try to cure his soul. You can’t do that. You can’t help a man’s soul by manipulating his body. But we’ve got all sorts of manipulations and manipulators. But Jesus stood in the midst and He was their everything and their all, and He still is. So that’s good news for this sin-tired, good news for the defeated, good news for the fatigued and morally distressed, good news for the those who are afraid, good news for those who know their own pollution. Good news, for He shall be called Jesus, for He shall deliver people from their sins.

Now it says here that this Jesus stood in the midst of them and said, peace be unto you. Now this explains the angels’ words, peace on earth, goodwill to men. The angel could only say that because Jesus was coming, who was to be the peace of mankind. He is our peace. I used to have that on a motto on the wall, He is our peace. So, the angel could say peace on earth, because the Peace had come to earth.

Now, this text shows, or at least it illustrates, Jesus’ method of imparting help directly and personally, that was Christ in the midst at the center. And He could be in the midst, because He is God. He is Spirit. He is timeless. He is spaceless. He is supreme. He is all in all. Therefore, He can be at the center.

Now, I point out and borrow an illustration that Christ is the center of all things. He is the hub around which everything revolves, and the illustration is that of a wheel. Somebody said centuries ago, that a wheel was an example that Jesus Christ was the hub of the wheel, and everything created was on the rim of the wheel, so said the old man. Everything that is, is equally distant from Jesus and equally near to Him. You know how there’s a hub in the middle and spokes going out to the rim and the rim goes around the equidistant at all points from the hub. And Jesus Christ is that hub, and everything is on the rim, so that it’s just as near to Him from down here as from over there, up there. Everybody’s equally close and equally far, for Jesus Christ is the hub.

Now, I want to point out here how our Lord Jesus Christ is at the center. Jesus in the midst. And thus, if He’s in the midst, He’s accessible from anywhere in life. And this is good news, very wonderful, good news. For instance, let me point out seven things here, and say that Jesus Christ is at the center of those things, and thus is accessible equally, everywhere.

He is in the center of geography, let us say, because there is no favored spot. It so happens that I am at the present, reading Newman’s history of Latin Christianity, and reading again the story of the Crusaders. Before the Crusader, the time of the Crusaders, there was a belief that there was some virtue attached, or merit at any rate attached in going on pilgrimage to the very place where Jesus was born, and particularly to the sepulcher of our Lord. And when Peter the Hermit, barefooted old orator that he was, whipped all of the East, all of Europe, really, into a white heat to get the Crusades launched, it was that we might deliver a grave which Jesus Christ had been out of for more than 1000 years, might deliver it from the Mohammedins. If they could just get there to that grave, everything would be all right. There was some virtue in being where Jesus had been.

I don’t know why we insist upon being spiritually obtuse. Haven’t we heard Jesus say that? And I tell you that neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem do men worship the Father. For the Father seeketh such to worship Him who worship Him in spirit and in truth. It is not on a mountain or a city. Why didn’t they read that? Why instead of all the bloodshed and death and starvation and freezing to death and all the rest of the long trips to get to the place where Jesus had been born or where he had died or where he had been buried? Why didn’t they read that passage that says, I say unto you, that henceforth men shall not worship the Father in this city. But men shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

There is no geographical advantage anywhere in the world. You would not be one bit better a Christian if you lived in Jerusalem. And you could go to the globe, the geographic globe and you could find the spot exactly across from, farthest from Jerusalem and live there, and you wouldn’t be at any disadvantage. For Jesus Christ is in the middle of geography. And He is just as near to him from anywhere as it is from anywhere. And it’s just as far from Him also. So that the geography doesn’t mean anything. Oh, if I could but go to Jerusalem. And how much money has been spent by preachers who felt that they could preach better if they’d only look on Jerusalem. They go over and look all on Jerusalem and come back and all the good it does them is it gives them stories to tell. But they’re no better, and the people are no better, no. Jesus is at the hub, and geography is all around Him. And as just as near to Him from anywhere as it is from anywhere.

Then I’ll say that we’re just as near to him in time because He’s at the center of time. Let’s not, let’s not mournfully talk about the time of Christ. Of course, you have to use that expression. And I use it myself. It’s necessary in our human thinking that we do use such phrases, although we ought to know what we mean by them. There is a song that says, I think when I read this sweet story of old, how Jesus was here among men. When he drew little children as lambs to His fold, I should like to have been with Him then. And I suppose there’s been many a tear wiped out of many a pious eye when we’ve been singing that song.

But did you know that the people who were with Jesus when He walked among men, were not as well off as they were ten days after He had left them, ten days after He’d been gone. He sent the Holy Ghost down. And the blinded disciples who only knew partly, now suddenly knew with a blaze of light, the times of Christ, we say, I’d liked to have lived in the time of Christ. Why there were hypocrites and Pharisees and opposers and murderers and unbelievers in the time of Christ. You won’t get any better by going back. Some of you look back nostalgically upon what you consider the good old days.

Now, you ought to be delivered from that, sir, I never fall into the trap of talking about the good old days of the Christian Missionary Alliance. I read and wrote the history, the life of Dr. A.B. Simpson, and so I keep my mouth wisely shut about those good old days. Things weren’t any better then than now, because Jesus Christ was at the center of time and it’s just as near to the heart of Jesus from where you are now in Chicago, as it was in New York when Simpson founded the Alliance. And it was just as close now to Jesus, from where you are in 1955, as it was in 1884 or 1901.

Now, again, Jesus Christ is the center of the race. And there are no favored races, and no favorite races. I think we ought to stop and let that soak in a little bit and point out that Jesus Christ is the Son of man. And He is not the Son of the first century, nor of the 20th century. He is a Son of Man. He is not a Son of the Jewish race only. He is the son of the Anglo Saxon and all the races there are and all the colors there are. When Jesus Christ was incarnated in mortal flesh, He was not incarnated only in the body of a Jew, He was incarnated in the body of the race. So, you can go to Tibet, or Afghanistan, or the Indians of South America, or the Mohammedans of Arabia, or the Englishman of London, or the Scotch of Glasgow, and you can preach Jesus, and if there’s faith and willingness to follow Him, it’s just as near to Him from any one of those given points, for they’re all on the wheel rim anyhow. And they are all as near, and all as far.

That’s why we in the Christian and Missionary Alliance do not think that we ought to first go into a country and educate it, and then, when we’ve educated the people, then preach Christ to them. We know better than that. We know that Jesus Christ is just as near to an uncultured heathen as He is to a cultured man from New York or London. And that’s why He’s in the middle of all culture and all culture levels. And a person who does not know how to read and write, who has never worn anything but the briefest of clothing, and who has never had a decent cooked meal in his life, has never traveled in any modern conveyances, if you will preach Christ to him and be patient and make him understand, and his heart awakes, and the Spirit illuminates his mind, he’ll believe on Jesus and reach out and touch the hem of His garment and be transformed, just as certainly from the lowest.

I don’t know whether Miss Benke, who probably knows more about that than I do, though, I agree and know that Indonesia is a vast place and that New Guinea is far to the east and probably as far removed as South America from here geographically, but I think probably she would know more and I think would agree with me, that those inhabitants of New Guinea, which our missionaries have told us, are the lowest down the scale.

Now, there may be others. I haven’t heard of any others. They say that there’s something about them, completely repulsive, completely bestial, completely belonging to the jungle and the barnyard. And yet, they will believe in Jesus Christ and be born again just as quickly as a man with a monocle and an Oxford accent. Because it’s just as near to Jesus from the jungle as it is from the college. Just as near to Jesus from the lowest stratum of society as it is from the highest. He’s in the midst of all cultures, and He’s in the midst of all ages. By that I mean, human ages, our birthdays. It is just as near to Jesus from eighty as it is from eight. Just as near from seventy as it is from seven. Just as near to Jesus and just as far from one age as another age.

Well, I agree and they realize that as we get older, we get harder and more careless. And the likelihood of our coming to Jesus diminishes as we get older. But our ability to come to Jesus, the distance we are from Jesus, is no greater when we’re ninety than when we’re ten or eleven, or any other age you might think of. So, Jesus Christ stands in the middle of the human race, stands in the middle of geography, stands in the middle of time, stands in the middle of all cultures, stands in the middle of all races, and stands in the middle of all ages. He is in the midst and he is speaking peace be unto you.

And again, our Lord is in the middle of all life’s experiences. You know, experience is an awareness of something that is or is going on. I’d say that’s experience. If something is or is going on, that’s an experience. The newborn baby hasn’t had much experience, bless his little heart. He hasn’t been around very long and the experience he has had, hasn’t pleased him. So, he sets up a wild howl always. If they don’t howl, they make them.

Well, here he is, bless his little newborn heart. He is just in the world, a little stranger. And he hasn’t had much experience. He has practically none, practically no experience. And then, every once in a while, we hear of a man who is 100 years old. He’s had some experience. He’s been aware of a lot of things happening. The little chap isn’t. Every day brings a new experience, every day. Every hour brings a new experience to the newborn. He enlarges if he’s normal and grows, gets in contact with more things. Tennyson in his In Memoriam has, I can’t quote it verbatim, but it’s a very lovely little thing. You can’t read it without smiling in appreciation about the little baby that holds his hand up in front of his face and says, that isn’t me. And there is where his intelligence awakes. He’s in here somewhere. He something else. That isn’t me. And he says he makes the difference between me and not me. Tennyson makes it very beautiful. It sounds rather useless the way I put it I’m afraid. But the way he put it, it really has meaning, that when he awakes to the fact that there’s me and then there’s not me. And when he gets aware of, that he’s having experiences, as soon as he knows this is me and this is that woman that feeds me, that’s not me.

Well, there you have it, his `experiences have started. Well, if he lives somewhere in the hills and never comes out, he probably won’t have a very wide field of experience. If he’s a world traveler and a busy man and gets a lot of education and does many things and sees many things and hears many things and people, his experiences will be vast, so vast that it’s a mystery and a wonder how his little brain can ever file them for future reference and keep them in his memory, but it does.

Well now, which is it nearer? Is it nearer to Jesus from that child of no experience or from that old man of much integrity and experience? No difference. Jesus Christ stands in the middle of life’s experience. And you can reach Him always on the rim and everything comes into Him from the rim. And we can move into Him from our early childhood, the little one that’s just old enough to lisp and say, Jesus, I believe and can be saved. The old tottering man, he’s not likely to, but if he will, he can come and believe in Christ, for Christ stands in the middle of human experience.

Jonathan Edwards, that mighty preacher of early days in our country, was converted when he was five years-old, and he said I never backslid, and went right on. Five years old, he was converted. What experience does a five-year-old boy have?

I just got finished in my private devotional reading in my study. I have just finished reading those early chapters of 1 Samuel. And here was a boy the commentators think might have been twelve years old. He was in the temple. Here he was a little lad. Even the commentators get sentimental and talk about his little jacket. They made him a little robe and put it on, and he was just a little fellow. And then, here was an old man ninety-eight-years old, out in the next room, Samuel and Eli, the boy and the aged man. What experience has that boy had? Practically none. What experience had the old man had? Practically all. He had run the scale. He had run the gamut of human possibilities. And yet, it was just as near to God from little Samuel who had no experiences as from Eli who had many, and vice versa.

So, they sort of divided the world up into three parts, and that’s about all we’ve got left today, isn’t it? We’ve got religion, culture, politics, and the military. That’s about all there is to it. Everything else falls somewhere inside those brackets. And Jesus Christ was crucified in the middle of that. So, it’s just as easy to reach Him from the philosopher’s ivory tower as it is from the priest’s sanctuary. Just as easy for the soldier within his uniform to reach him as it is the thinker with his big books, for He’s in the middle of it.

You remember, when our Lord hung on the cross, they wrote his superscription above his head in Hebrew and Greek and Latin. And I wouldn’t have thought of this, but somebody pointed out that in doing this, God had taken in the whole world. Hebrew was religion, Greek was philosophy, Latin was military conquests. If you wanted religion, go to the Hebrew. If you wanted philosophy, go to the Greek. If you wanted politics and military conquest, go to the Romans. So, his name was written there, this is Jesus Christ, king of the Jews in Hebrew and Greek and Latin, so that all the possibilities of human experience, the highest flights of religion, the farthest out and farthest in-reaches of philosophical thought, and the most practical and terrible conquests made by politicians, all of this, Jesus was in the middle of it and stood there. And it was as close to Him from the Roman soldier that said, this is the Son of God, as from the Hebrew teacher that said, Master, Thou art sent from God, Nicodemus.

Christ Jesus our Lord stands in the midst, so nobody has any advantage over anybody else. Thank God. Aren’t you glad for that? Nobody can frighten me, intimidate me and send me away like a whipped curd. Nobody can say, ah, but you don’t know? They try it. They try it. They smile and say it’s because you don’t know. And I smile back and think Brother, you just don’t know, yourself. It’s because I do know. It’s because I can reach Him as quickly from where I am as from where any other man is. Einstein, the greatest mind probably alive today, and he could reach out and touch his Messiah, for he’s a Jew, if he would. Probably won’t, but if he would. There’s a lot of people in America that can’t read and write yet. They can only sign their X on their official papers. And Einstein and the man who makes an X on his paper, are all in the same bracket, same category.

So, nobody has any advantage over anybody else. So don’t let’s mourn the fact we didn’t live when Jesus lived. We live in the time of Christ, now. Let’s not mourn the fact we didn’t live in Jerusalem. It’s just as near to Jesus from Chicago. If you’re old and bent and tired and sick, don’t worry, it’s just as near to Jesus from where you are as to where that little boy tossing the baseball in such abandon of delight. So it’s just as easy for one or the other.

You say, then why doesn’t everybody come? Because of our inexcusable stubbornness, because of our unbelief, because of our preoccupation with other things. Because we do not believe we need Him at all. These things keep us away. We turn our backs on Him because we do not think we need Him.  But if we’ll admit that we need Him, thank God you can come to Him and get His help, touch Him and feel the power and virtue flow out, wherever you are, whoever you are, whatever race you belong to, whatever culture level you find yourself on, whatever educational level. Jesus didn’t come to save learned men only. He came to save the sick. Not white men only, but all colors that are under the sun. Not young people only, but all people of any age, down to the moment when they drop asleep and go back to the dust. So, let’s believe that. And let’s think of Jesus in the midst. That’s the most important thing about this church service. The most important thing about Chicago, Jesus is here in the midst. You can reach him from where you are. Amen.

Categories
Messages

Tozer Talks

“Some Christian Qualities to Seek“

PDF Formatted TranscriptDownload

“Some Christian Qualities to Seek”

Pastor and author Aiden Wilson Tozer

October 20, 1957

A brief message from the Book of Colossians. Colossians 3, in the fifteenth verse, often read and memorized by the people of God but still as fresh as a new morning. The Holy Spirit says to us, let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body. And be ye thankful. And let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.

Now, he says, “let” here, and as you know, the word let means, see to it. It doesn’t mean permit only. It’s stronger than that. It’s an affirmative, positive word—permit. Let as we say, let him do it. It’s to grant permission, but “let” here. And also let means hinder. But in this instance, it means see to it that. In other words, as George Duncan said last Thursday night at the Keswick, there is no place in grace where we are free from the necessity of discipline and choice. I agree with that fully. There is no place where you’re going to float to heaven on a pink cloud. You must take hold of yourself, because in us dwell two powers, the natural life, with bad inclinations. I know that some say that the bad, natural life is taken out, but I’ve never met anybody yet that I’d trust if the Lord left him. I’ve never met any Christian yet that I’d trust him very long if the Lord left him.

They say that one great old brother who believed in the elimination, that is eradication of the natural bad in man, the natural flesh. They said to him, brother, you say that the natural life received from Adam has been eliminated? He said, yes sir. That’s what I believe. And he said, let me ask you a question. Suppose that a young man who had had the natural Adam life completely eliminated, married a young woman who had had the natural life completely eliminated. And they had a baby, would the baby be redeemed automatically and not need the new birth? They had him. So, he gave an illustration. He said, well, it’s like this. He said, you have a sour apple tree and you graft a good apple branch in, he said, that good branch will bear good fruit. But if you plant the seeds, you would get a bad tree. That was supposed to answer that question, but all it did was confirm the other man’s opinion, because obviously, that seed was bad, and it’s bad still. So, we’ve got that to deal with. It’s possible to live above it and live in the Spirit and not fulfill it as I tried to preach last week at Keswick.

But there is within us the power of Christ, the presence of the new Man and the holy inclinations and the good inclinations we find in the seventh of Romans yearning to do good. And in the eighth chapter of Romans we’re taught how the yearning to do good can overcome the yearning, the gravitational tendencies of the natural man. But our lives will go in the direction that we determine they should go. He said, let’s see to it, see to it. The indwelling power of Christ then will furnish the power. This that I have said previously is not in any way to excuse poor living. I don’t believe in it. I believe that God’s children are to live day by day in the Spirit and not sin and fulfill the lusts of the flesh. He said, let’s permit, see to it that the peace of God rules in your heart. And whatever rules in your heart, that’s the way you’ll go, just as whoever is at the wheel of the car, that’s where their car will go. And whoever runs the country, that’s the way the country will go. And so, whoever rules your heart, if it’s the peace of God, why, you will have that in your heart and that will be the way your life will go. To which also he says ye are called.

Now, Adam, old Adam and his brood come from that bad seed the brother talked about in that apple. There’s inward discord there. That’s our trouble, inward discord. We’ve always had inward discord you know. It’s only recently that we invented psychiatrists who lay you down on the couch and have you tell your story. But everybody has had inward discord. I can imagine that Adam and Eve walked around grinding their teeth many of time. And Adam went away shaking his head saying, that woman. I am sure of it. I’m sure of it. That’s just because they were fallen human beings, discord was their inward discord. And always it’s the inward discord that causes the outward discord.

If suddenly, everybody in the world had peace of heart we could eliminate the Sputnik and all the armies and navies and policemen. If we had inner accord, I said discord, but accord, inner accord, if we had inner peace, everybody had inner peace, we can eliminate all armies. And we could call home John Foster Dulles and all the rest and say, now, go fishing. There’s nothing to worry about, nothing to worry about, because the inner discord is taken away and everybody’s at peace. And when people are at peace, they won’t hurt each other. It’s when they’re not at peace that the trouble comes, and most people aren’t.

So, he said, have peace. Let’s see to it that the peace of God rules in your heart to which you’re also called. And it’s the inward discord that causes the outward bickering and brawls and wars. And it’s the inward redemption, redemption and reestablishment of peace that results in inward harmony. And he said, ye are called, you’re called in one body, harmonious accord between ourselves as a source of measureless enjoyment. No question. It’s a source of measureless enjoyment. And discord is the source of the greatest suffering in the world.

I have said, I have never had anybody answer it. Maybe it wasn’t worth answering or maybe nobody could, that I have said that I believe the source of the most pain and suffering among mankind is bad dispositions, people with bad tempers. But you say, isn’t cancer worse? No, cancer kills its victim and gets it over with, but a fellow with a bad disposition lives with it, maybe seventy years. And his wife lives with it, poor woman, maybe fifty years. And she suffers, not as sharp and as acute maybe as tuberculosis or cancer or leukemia, but it doesn’t kill its victim. It just tortures them till they die. But inward peace, the harmony and love inside the heart is a source of great enjoyment to us all.

So, let the peace of God rule in your heart to which you’re called in one body. And let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Now, here’s what the Gideons are dedicated to, to giving out are the word of Christ. The word of Christ. The word of Christ, what does it mean? Does it mean that you will buy a red-letter testament? If you have a red-letter testament, don’t be offended by what I say, because it’s perfectly alright for you to have one I suppose. But I think the red-letter testament unintentionally gives a bad impression, because it gives the impression that the letters written in red, were the words of Christ and the other ones are the word of man which is not true.

The word of Christ is not only the words Christ spoke, but they’re all the words spoken about Christ by inspired man. So, letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly may mean letting the first Psalm dwell in you or the 23rd Psalm or the 22nd Psalm, or the 46th Psalm or the 103 Psalm, or any of the Psalms or the Prophets, or the Gospels, or the Acts or the Epistles or Revelation. So don’t imagine that if you see some words printed and read that that means that they’re Christ and they’re more important, they’re not more important. In addition to the fact they murder your eyes, I don’t know whoever invented that, but it’s invented and so we have.

But the word of Christ is whatever the holy prophet said about Christ, what the holy apostle said about Christ and what Christ said about things when He was on earth. That’s the word of Christ. And let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

Now, where does it dwell in you? Well, it dwells in your mind by memorizing, and we ought to memorize the Scriptures. We ought to memorize it by loving it rather than mechanical memorization, but we ought to memorize it. It’s in your mind by memorizing. It’s in your heart, by loving it. It’s in your will by choosing. And it’s in your life by enthroning. Those four things–that would make a sermon in itself and anybody can have it if he wants it for a sermon outline of four points here. The word of Christ dwells in your mind by memorizing it. There’s something about the word of God, when it gets into the human mind, it corrects faults and purifies the mind and does something good for it. And then it’s in your heart by loving it. We should love the word as David said he did and it’s in your will by choosing to obey it and it’s in your whole life by enthroning it. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.

Now, the Holy Ghost put that little phrase in, “all wisdom,” a little prepositional phrase thrown in here as a modifier. And I want you to notice that he said, let the word of Christ dwell in you and in all wisdom, because it’s perfectly possible to have a lot of the word of God in your mind and have no wisdom at all. And so, it will be worse off than if he didn’t. I mean for instance, Jehovah’s Witnesses quote the Bible continuously, but they have no wisdom. They quote it all out of its context and give their own meaning to it. And so there are other groups that quote the Bible, but it’s not in wisdom. There is a divine wisdom. The same Holy Spirit that inspired the Bible must teach the Bible. He must illuminate the Bible so that when you hear it and read it and memorize it, you’ll know what it means in spiritual meaning.

Then he says, teaching and admonishing one another. In this day and age, we hire our teachers. We hire teachers at school, and we sit and listen to them and go home. But the Scripture says teaching and admonishing one another. Every one of you should be a teacher of somebody else. Admonished means to reprove and to warn gently and kindly, but seriously and determinedly.

I’ve been doing a bit of research on the old Methodists for a series I’m writing on those amazing Methodists. And you know what I find? I find they divided their churches up into groups of twelve, called classes, and up into smaller groups called bands. And they had group leaders, class leaders, and then they had persons over those bands. And the business of those class leaders was not to lead the meeting, not to be as we say now, the emcee. The Methodists never heard of that horrible thing. But what they did was this, they picked out some wise old sharp-eyed, prayerful brother and they said, now we’ll make you a class leader and we’ll put eleven people under you, not actually under you, but we’ll put them into your prayerful care.

And they gave him the list and gave him their names and said, now you watch over them as over your own soul and pray for them. And if you see them going wrong, go to them. So that this class leader with these eleven persons to whom he was responsible, women for women I suppose and men for men. But when this class leader saw anybody beginning to slip, he didn’t go to the pastor and he didn’t go to the open prayer meeting. And he didn’t talk behind his back. He went right straight to his Christian brother. And he said, my brother, I am bothered about you. I’m worried about you because of the way you’re living. And most often he got him straightened out and nobody ever knew anything about it. It was the Holy Spirit using a man to admonish another man–teaching and admonishing one another. But we’re not honest enough nor courageous enough now to do that. Now if you admonished a man he gets blazing mad, but that’s because we’re so carnal and far from God.

In Colossae, they were assumed to be close enough to God to accept admonishments. And in the Methodists, they had to be close enough to God or they got shown the back door. They actually did show them the back door. And if Wesley found things weren’t going right, he said, straighten out you’ll see my face no more and he walked out on them and they straightened out.

Now, if we did this, this would head off many a bad fall on the part of some of our Christian people, particularly young Christians. It says we’re to teach and admonish each other, and one way of teaching and admonishing is to sing. Sing songs and hymns and spiritual songs. Now, this is Paul’s threefold classification: psalms of David set to music, hymns written by the Christians and you’ll find a number of them if I had time. I’d point them out to you in the New Testament. Some of Paul’s epistles contain little gems which Paul didn’t write, but which we borrowed and set in there, the same as if you hear a preacher preaching a sermon, and suddenly, he goes off into a four-line stanza of a hymn saying what he wants to say better than he can. So, Paul, in some of his epistles, quoted certain passages, which were actually hymns which the Christians were singing. And he said that they ought to sing these, and not only the songs but hymns of what the old Methodists and Presbyterians called a human composition. And then spiritual songs, I don’t know what that would be, perhaps it would be another way of saying the other two, songs and hymns.

And then, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord. You know, whenever I go, almost any place I go, what I miss is our singing here. I miss it. We don’t have the greatest singers in the world here. We have good singers. And we have some who have a reputation as good singers. But I mean that we’re not a St. Olaf’s outfit here. But there’s something here, the singing; singing with grace in your heart. And I hear grace in a song when I hear the song. There are some religious songs that you couldn’t get any grace and grace would enter that place. But there are other songs that you’ll sing with grace in your heart, you’ll make a rather ordinary song pretty good. Have you ever had the experience of having a fellow who wasn’t too well instructed, but who did love God and who sang with the Spirit. He would get up and choose a rather ragged number that wasn’t too good and put his head off on one side and close his eyes and sing it, and pretty soon you were getting blessed even if the song wasn’t the best. Now if he’d had a good one, he’d have multiplied his usefulness. But, I’ve seen that happen more than once. And if somebody sang with grace in their hearts, and if the song wasn’t so good, they made it good. And I’ve heard some of the most noble songs ever composed by the pen, inspired man, ruined by being sung without grace.

And then it says, sing to the Lord. Not sing to the congregation, but sing to the Lord. And if you sing a good song to the Lord, somebody’s going to get help as sure as you live. And it’s my positive conviction that next to the preaching of the word and expounding of the Scriptures, the next greatest power to do good in the public assembly is grace-filled singing of great songs to the Lord. Sing with grace in your heart. There oughtened to be anybody in the choir that couldn’t come stand right up before the board and take an examination on whether they had grace in their heart or not. The paid and the professional singer doesn’t do much good.

One of the sexiest singers singing today, I’m not even going to advertise him by speaking his name. One of the most, one of the most carnal, sexiest singers singing today has some sacred album. They said they did it to try to help to counteract bad publicity. Can you imagine a guy, a man, a young fellow so terrible? He’s got a reputation says, well, I want to get away from this reputation for being that kind of a fellow, so I’m going to sing some hymns and so he sings himself some hymns and poor, dumb Christians buy them and put them on and play them and wipe the tears out of their eyes. Well, singing with grace in your heart. And if we don’t sing with grace in our heart, we might just as well not sing.

Then in closing it says, whatsoever you do, whatever you do, and you know we’ve all got a lot to do. Do you ever get up in the morning and say to yourself, I haven’t much to do today, but before 10 o’clock, you were involved in so many things you wish you had twelve hands instead of two. It happens to me all the time. I get up early and come up to church here. I’m up an hour and a half in the church here before you’re present, looking around at things for the Sunday school and straightening out things and praying a little and going over my sermons, and I’m here. And I think I’ll have nothing to do when I get up there but sit and meditate and pray. When I get up here, I find that there’s so much to do that it takes up to church time and behind the scenes, but I’m doing it. Whatever you do, he said, the world’s full of things to do. Personally, I think if we were wiser than we are, we’d find some things that didn’t have to be done. We cut down on our activity a bit. We do them. But if we, do it to the Lord it says, whatever you do, do to the glory of God, in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father. So, this glorifies all activities, that is if they’re divine, if they’re in God.

Domestic toil, one of our poor pastors. Here he’s been up every night now for ten days. And his poor bleary-eyed wife. The little fellow is healthy, but he just mixed up. He thinks night is day and day is night. So poor Brother Moore has to lug him around at night you know, so if you hear a tramp, tramp, tramp, don’t think the enemies coming, it’s just Brother Moore. He’s carrying the new baby around. You can do it to the glory of God, son if you know how.

And you can do everything to the glory of God, domestic toil, labor, caring for babies, your business, your long-distance calls and closing of that deal if it’s honest. If it isn’t honest, you can’t. But if it’s honest, you can do it for the glory of God and your school. You can do that for the glory of God and your travel, whether it’s by bus which is the worst way to travel, or by plane which is the fastest. Why, you can still glorify God, giving thanks to God the Father. And I say, we must preserve a thankful heart.

I wonder what there is about frost and yellow leaves that makes people thankful? I don’t think we ought to wait until the birds go south to get thankful. Thankfulness should be an ingredient in our Christian hearts, and we shouldn’t be thankful all the time. For thankfulness is more precious than diamonds. And I for my part, I’m determined to be thankful. Every day I considered a bonus. I ought to be dead long ago if God had dealt with me. And if he’d have been as hard on me as I’ve been on His people, I would have been. But He still lets me live. And every day I think of it and say thank Thee Lord and another day a bonus. Every day is a bonus, every day. I think we ought to thank Him and keep thankful. And if we keep a thankful heart and a singing heart and a Bible-filled heart, a Scripture-filled heart and a good honest, courageous heart that isn’t afraid to admonish and reprove when we have to, why, we’ll certainly have peace of heart. And if we have peace of heart, why, we’ll have, and it’s all here in this text. We’ll have harmony and accord and that’s the sweetest thing in the world. It’s like the oil on the head of Aaron that went down to his beard and went down to the skirts of his garment for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore.