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4 CLIMBING UP THE STAIRS Text: “Grow in grace and. in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.’’ 2 Peter 3:18. ANY people are confounding growth in grace with salvation. They are repre senting that to be saved one must grow up into a certain degree of spiritual and ethical respectability and then be saved. Some of the rest of us claim that salva tion is the starting point and growth in grace is that which results from hav ing been saved. I suppose there have I been more sermons preached on it than any other one thing in the Bible unless it is salvation itself. And yet I am free to say that after all that has been said and all that has been written about it, there are very few people that I have found that have actually experienced it. There are very few people that have ever made any growth in grace, certainly since a short while after they -were con verted. If you will look at this from your expe rience with Christian people, I expect you would say; the same thing. Just look at the great crowd of Christian people that you know, and how many have ever made any progress in grace? For the most part, we are just as selfish, just as greedy for gain, just as unfair in our judgments, just as un fair in our business dealings, and just as irritable and fractious, just as indifferent about religion, just as little disposed to give ourselves to the great work of Jesus Christ as we were the day when we were saved, and more so, for there was a certain sort of spiritual ectasy that we had at that time which led us out into active "work of the Lord Jesus Christ that we have not got now. I will venture to say that some of us are saying to ourselves at this time, °I am not as far in grace today as when I was converted/’ Some of us, of course, have made progress, but is not so with the vast majority. Now if you think that there is any doubt about it, suppose you have an inventory made of yourself this morning, and ask the Holy Spirit to help you in this inventory that you may be honest and square! To begin with, ask yourself this question: “Do I enjoy my Bible any more than I used to?” “Do I enjoy prayer any more than I used to?” “Do I find pleasure in Christian work any more than I used to?” “Do I give myself to meditation that I may know the will of God and do it, any more than I used to?” “Am I any more inclined to turn loose my money to missions, to the support of the church, to the salvation of men than I used to be?” After such an. inventory, then be frank enough to say to the Holy Spirit who helps you in that inventory exactly how you feel, and if you feel, after this inventory, that there has been no progress made in your spiritual life, and you are a Christian at all, you are greatly disturbed. Now why is it that men do not grow in grace, as they are commanded in this text, for this is a spe ific command. I cannot believe that it is because they do not want to grow in grace, for certainly if one has ever been saved he wants to grow in grace. Any man having gotten a taste of salvation cannot exist without longing for more. But why is it that we make such poor progress ? I think the answer is largely this. We have somehow failed to comprehend the proper method of growth; and it is this largely that I wish to speak upon, the method of growth in grace. SALVATION TO BEGIN WITH. First of all, let me say that growth in grace must be the outcome of salvation. I need not now stop to argue this. No man will ever grow in grace until he has grace to begin with. Then, again, growth in grace must be the out come of definite dedication of one’s self to God. Now, understand that I say “definite dedication.” I do not say a definite consecration, for consecra tion and dedication are separate and distinct from each other; just as separate and distinct from i-acn other as light is from darkness, Congecra- The Golden Age for November 29, 1906. Tabernacle Sermon by Rev. Len. G. Broughton. lion is God’s side, dedication is man’s side. Man dedicates and God consecrates. We sometimes speak of full consecration of ourselves. There is iio thing as a man consecrating himself. We sometimes hear people talk about consecrating this or that thing that they have to God. We can never consecrate anything that we have. We can dedicate but we can go no further. The idea is fully seen in connection with the (Offerings of the people of Israel. Take the first eight chapters of the Book of Leviticus, and you will find the idea that I am trying to impress very clearly brought out in the five offerings that were made. For example, there was -the burnt offering. This had to do with one’s personal dedication. Then there was the meal offer ing, which had to do with the product of one’s labor. Then there was the peace offering, the peace offering had to do with the dedication of one’s will, for it is one’s will which is at variance with God, and the will must be dedicated to God before one can get on pleading terms with God. Then there was the sin offering. The sin offering had to do with the sins of one’s life which to him were not discovered at the time they were committed, and hence this sin offering was made for unknown sins, sins which afterwards might become known, or which might not become known. There was the trespass offering, which had to do with the sins that were known, which were openly and flagrantly committed. Now, these five offerings embraced the whole of man. First, the man himself in the burnt offering, then the product of the man in the meal offering, then the will of the man in the peace offering, then unknown sin in the sin offering, and finally the sins that were known in the trespass offering. So you see this is the requirement of God for us, that we shall dedicate ourselves to God to be wholly and forever sealed with his consecration. Now there can be no growth in grace until that is done. There may be growth in some of the graces of grace, but there can be no growth in the divine like ness until one has dedicated himself, everything that he has, his will and all, to be sealed with the sacred seal of divine consecration. It is more se rious than we ofttimes think. I have seen consecration meetings held when peo ple by the hundreds would come pouring to the front, saying as they came, “I wholly consecrate myself to God.” They do no such thing. They can do but one thing, and that is to wholly dedicate themselves to God, but often that they fail to do. Think of it, how few people actually wholly dedi cate themselves to God—themselves, their property, their homes, their business, their intellects, their eyes, their feet, their hands, their all. How few of us ever do that, and yet that is the requirement. And, then, we act so carelessl yabout our future lives after we have made that dedication. We go up and take our stand, saying, “All is on the altar, everything,” and then we go right out of the church building, where we said that, and take it right off the altar and appropriate it to ourselves. It is an awful thing to do that. I shall never for get an address on consecration that I heard deliv ered in New York by C. H. J. McGregor, the great Scotch preacher, who died shortly after that, in which he said: “I never see a man wholly dedi cate himself to God that I do not tremble.” It is equivalent to saying to God, “Here 1 am and everything I have, take it and put the stamp of consecration upon it,” and then for that man to come back and take from God what he has given to Him is an awful thing. It is robbing God of that which He has stamped with the blood of His Son, and everything taken back from God under such circumstances has the blood of Jesus Christ upon it. Oh, how would we feel going around trad ing with money that has the blood marks of Jesus on it? How would we feel going around engaging in business that has the blood marks of Jesus on it. unless we were doing it "as unto God?” Oh, my brethren, if we make a dedication of ourselves to God, let it be once for all! If we give God our heads, our hearts, our hands, our feet, let that be once forever. Never go to God and try to take it away from Him again. It is His and you can be His steward only in the exercise of it. I was talking to a business man in Atlanta recently who has a great business. He is a man of wealth. He said, “I have a new conception of my relation to God as a business man. I feel today as if I do not own one thing in the world.” And yet, to day he is one of the wealthiest men in this town. “I feel, somehow, like everything that I have has been stamped by Jesus Christ and I am only His servant to do business for Him.” I tell you a Christian business man cannot do business upon any other principle and that is why I say it is no little thing for a man to profess to be a child of God. It is a great big thing. It is a thing that we are not to lightly look upon. It is an awful thing in its seriousness and in its solemn require ments. Now, beloved, are we desirous of growing in grace? Then are we willing to pay the price of absolute dedication once and forever? THE FILLING OF THE SPIRIT. Then, the next step of growth in grace is the filling of the Spirit. There can be no spiritual life, to say nothing of progress, without the filling of the Holy Spirit. The man who tries to grow in grace by any other means will find that he will soon come to the end of his strength. It is through and by the inward working of the Holy Ghost that a man is to grow at all. The Apostle Paul, in writ ing to the Galatians, very clearly outlines that when he says: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, goodness, gentleness,” etc. That is to say the fruit of the Spirit is growth in grace, growth in the divine character. These very elements of grace mentioned by the apostle in this verse that I have quoted are the things that we all want, and they are the things which go to make up growth in grace. You will observe that it is not “fruits.” We are oftentimes disposed to quote it that way. but that is incorrect. It is “fruit of the Spirit.” What are we to understand by that ? That it is one great luscious fruit with these different parts. When the Holy Spirit takes possession of a man’s heart and life, He does not simply give a man love and joy and peace, but he makes him long suffering and meek. There is no more disposition to parade oneself before the public. There is no more of that spirit of, “Oh, I am not getting my rights! ’ ’ If the spirit bears fruit, it will be of love and joy and peace and long suffering and meekness and temperance, and everything that goes to make up the perfect, rounded character of Jesus Christ. And, then, you will realize that this fruit is the natural outcome of the indwelling Spirit. It is not by strained effort that one gets this fruit. It is not resolving to do this or that, or leave undone this or that that brings forth the fruit of the Spirit. but it is by the Holy Spirit in him, and when once that surrender is made, based upon perfect, complete dedication of man to God. then the work of bearing fruit begins, and more and more it ripens as the years come and go. It is just as natural as it is for an apple tree to bear apples. The tree does not have to strain to bring forth that fruit, nor do you have to strain the tree to bring forth that fruit. The nat ural result of that tree, if kept in a healthy and normal condition, is to bear fruit. So the natural outcome of the indwelling Spirit is to bear the fruit of the Christ character. PRAYER. Then the next step in growth in grace is prayer. I said a moment ago that no man can grow in grace without the Spirit. No man can maintain a growth in grace without prayer. We may have away of saying our prayers at night and in the morning, but that is not what I mean by prayer. In order for one to grow in grace there must be the prayer life, thq is eyer in tune with