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6 THE WAY TO KEEP OUT OF TROUBLE “And the disciples did as Jesus appointed them.” Matt. 26: 19. F I KNOW anything about Christian life, this theme is the most important for the Christian to consider. It is emphasized in everything that we see, and everythinng that we hear. The nation, the state, the city and the in dividual that would learn the secret of success must first learn the secret of obedience. No people will ever reap I all that is possible for them to reap until obedience is recognized and enforced. No home will ever prosper in the truest sense of the word until in 'that home there is recognized and enforced the law of obedience. Somebody has got to govern, and everybody else must fall in line. The Church that would represent Christ in the world must be the Church that learns the importance of obedience, and submits itself to it. There must be some gen eral standard of life, some outline or policy. Somebody must direct, and everybody else fall in line. One great trouble with the Church today is that everybody wants to do the work of direct ing, and very few want to do the work of obey ing. OBEDIENCE NECESSARY TO GROWTH. The same thing is true with respect to the devel opment of Christian life. The Christian life be gins with the acceptance of Jesus Christ. That makes a man what we call a Christian. He is saved, not by the life he lives, however obedient it may be; but he is saved by the acceptance of Christ. Development of the Christ-life comes by certain fixed laws and principles outlined in God’s Word. No man will ever reap the benefits of the Christian life without conformity to the laws that govern it. No man will ever grow in the grace of Jesus until he meets the conditions, and conforms to the requirements laid down for his develop ment. The great need of the present hour, as I see it, is teaching along the lines of development in Christian life. Our text covers, and it seems to me, outlines what I am endeavoring to impress. Jesus commanded his diciples to make ready the Passover. Just ahead of him was the crucifixion. The Jews had already bargained with the enemy to betray him, and Jesus was preparinng himself and his disciples for the coming event. The disci ples came to him and asked, “Master, where shall we prepare for thee the Passover?” He said, “Go to the city, and find a certain man, and say unto him, ‘The Master wants to prepare in your house the Passover to eat with his disciples.’ ” And the text says: “The disciples went, and did as Jesus appointed them.” Thank God for this example of ready obedience to the command of Jesus Christ. How it must have comforted Jesus as he looked out ahead to the cross to know that his disciples were so will ing to do as he directed them. Not a question, so far as we know, did they raise. THE DOOR TO DISCIPLESHIP. Obedience to the will of Jesus Christ is the only door of admittance into the life of genuine disciple ship. Jesus himself said: “If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” The question I want to propound, by God’s help, is this: “As children of God, have we obeyed Jesus?” Not in some general, abstract sense, but have we followed him in the preference he made of his Father’s will to that of his own? He did that when he was twelve yars of age. He did that under very trying circumstances. When his father and mother had taken him to the tem ple, and were on their way home, they discovered that he was left behind, and they immediately returned, and found him in the presence of the lawyers and doctors, greatly amazing them with his wisdom. When they passed that seem ing rebuke upon him, you will remember Tabernacle Sermon by Rev. Len. G. Broughton. what his answer was: “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” It seems to me that right there is the first step in the development of the Christian life; the preferment of the Father’s business to that of our own. Oh, how careful we ought to be about it! Have we taken the step? Are we maintaining that position? If we have, then we are prepared to take some more steps. If our interest stands between us and God’s inter est, then we are not prepared to go any further in the development of the Christian life. We have got to come right back to the starting point, and fight the battle out. It may cost some of us great struggle to win, but we must do it. THE STORY OF A CHILD. I was reading some time ago, the story of an English general, who, one cold winter day, order ed his son to meet him on London bridge at 12 o’clock. As fathers often do, he forgot his boy. Twelve o’clock came, and the boy was there, but his father did not turn up. The whole afternoon passed, and still father did not come. Night came on. and he had company to dine with him, and when they came around the dining table, of course, it was mother who said: “Where is Henry?” The father said: “Oh, think of it! I forgot the lad.” He then jumped to his feet, and said: “Why, I ordered the lad to meet me on London bridge at 12 o’clock today, and there he has been standing in the cold all this time.” “Oh,” said one of the company: “I should think he has gone long ago!” “Ah,” said the gentleman, “you do not know the discipline in an English general’s home.” He then ordered a cab, and was hurried to the bridge, and found the boy, who was still waiting for his father. That is preferring the Father’s business. Oh, I feel ashamed of myself endeavoring to expound a truth like this! ‘There is so much of self in the best of us. It is so hard to see the Lord’s side for seeing our own. It is so hard to rejoice at the Lord’s victory if it requires the depreciation of ourselves. It is so hard to say “Amen,” when God is blessing somebody else. Have we taken the step? Are we anxious about taking it if we have not? We talk about the “sanctified life,” and the “spiritual life,” but there is no life higher than Jesus got when he was twelve years of age. The cross itself was no higher than that. “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” OBEDIENCE TO BAPTISM. Have we followed Jesus by confessing him in bap tism? Somebody says: “That is not essential.” What right has any one to say that anything Jesus did and taught is not essential? I am a bit tired hearing people talk about the “deeper spiritual tiism? As a believer in Christ, have we followed Him in baptism? Somebody says: “That is not essential.” What right has any one to say that anything Jesus did and taught is not essential? I am a bit tired hearing people talk about the “deep er spiritual life,” and the like, when they positively look with contempt upon the command of Jesus Christ concerning baptism. What right have we for persisting in a life of disobedience ? CONQUERING TEMPTATION. Again, have we followed Jesus in conquering temptation? The greatest trial of his life imme diately followed his baptism. The devil met him, and offered him every possible inducement to follow him. Jesus turned his back on him and on temp tation, and went straight for his Father’s busi ness. “Oh,” you say, “we are not expected to do that. He was God. He could conquer tempta tion.” My brethren, listen: Jesus met and con quered the devil at that point, not as God, but as man. The very temptation was in the form of temptation to man. Every suggestion was a sug gestion of temptation for man. Christ conquered him as a man, filled with the Spirit of God; and The Golden Age for December 20, 1200. conquered him that he might show to the Chris tians who followed him that they could conquer temptation by the same power. Have we followed Jesus in this particular? And are we following him now, or are we patting ourselves on the back and soothing ourselves with the devil’s soothing syrup, that God does not expect us to conquer temptation, because we are imper fect? The devil has hoodwinked more people with this excuse than anything else in the world. God does not expect his people to triumph over temp tation. Not that he proposes to take the root of sin out of the flesh; never until the flesh is cold in death, for the last enemy is death. But while this is true, he does not expect us to live the “overcoming life.” Not that temptations will not come thick and fast, but he does expect his children finally to fall back upon his power, and triumph over temptation. Have we done it, and are we now doing it? THE DENIAL OF SELF. Then, have we followed Jesus in the denial of self? Now, catch the question: I do not say his life of “self-denial.” He did not life a life of “self-denial” simply; he lived a life of “denial of self,” which is an entirely different thing. “Self-denial” is saying: “I will not wear a gold chain,” still, on the inside of the heart, the fires of selfishness may be raging. The denial of self goes down at the root, and deals with the will. It is very important that we get the distinction in our minds that I am trying to make: “Self denial” does not strike at the root of what Jesus is teaching, but the denial of the “self-life,” the surrender of everything in the world to the Lord Jesus. The other day a man went to a church in Atlanta to be present at a prayer-meeting. He was not a Christian. One after another kept getting up and saying what they could do to promote and extend the interest of the church. After awhile this man arose, and said: “I do not think I can do any thing that you have mentioned, but, at last, I have decided I will do this one thing: if you will have me, I will give myself.” That is what denial of self means. It is the self-giving. Have we done it? It is absolutely the only thing that God is going to be satisfied with. It is also the only thing that the world is going to be impressed with Lord Charles Beresford, one of the greatest admirals in the English navy, was out on a cruise just off the Falkland Islands, when there was a cry: “Man overboard!” He did not ring a bell, and summon a dozen servants to get him out, but Lord Beresford, a brave soldier and a great ad miral, believed in men, and loved them, and did not care for his life when another man’s life was at stake. The first thing he did he seized the first strong rope that came to hand and tied it to the boat, and took hold of the end of it and let him self down into the sea. When he found his man, the ship’s corporal pulled him and his man on deck. Fifteen years after, Lord Beresford was addressing a political meeting in England, and a man came pressing his way through the crowd down the aisle, and the crowd began hissing him, crying: “Clinch him out!” But he would not stop. Finally, the admiral said: “Let him come; maybe he has something to say.” The man re plied: “I do not want to say anything. I just want to shake your hand.” Then the admiral i ecognized the man he had saved from drowning. I his is the way one noble sailor is willing to deny himself for a fellow-sailor. We hear the cry today “Man overboard!” And instead of seizing the rope, and trying to save, we are sitting around trying to find somebody "else willing to do it; somebody else to do the work and let us enjoy the fruit of it. Oh, let it be done, and done by ourselves immediatly! Procrastina tion is one of the most damnable curses of the* church.