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down, he went down in mind, body and soul, and
the only way by which the mind can be redeemed
is through the blood of the atonement. I do not
care anything about the philosophy of men, unless
it is a philosophy that has been redeemed by Jesus
Christ.
Then, take the next step. “Their hearts were
darkened.” When they lived in the head, they
moved out of the heart. When man moves out of
the heart chamber and moves into the head cham
ber, there is not anything left in the heart cham
ber, and a vacuum cannot exist. Something
got to go in there, and the devil takes up Iris abode
there, and it gets filled with everything that is
contrary to the highest demands, so that his heart
becomes darkened.
You might as well try to fly to the sun as to ap
peal to the heart of a fellow that has moved up
into his brain. His heart has become darkened.
His heart eyes have gone out. If he sees suffering
it makes no impression. That sentimental side of
his nature has become blurred, and (hat is the de
scription of the age in which we live today.
And then comes (he fifth and last step —idolatry.
There is no other place to land. They have either
got to go back and re-state their theological posi
tion, or else go into idolatry.
There are many people that are in lands of
idolatry because they were born there, but there
are many people here in our own country who
might as well be there. It is just as much a species
of idolatry to worship the parrot or horse, or any
thing else, as it is to set up an image and worship
it. They allow these things to come in and take
the place of God. They pay more attention to
these things than they do to God. They are more
careful with respect to things of this earth than
to those things that pertain to heaven.
THE MANNER OF HIS WRATH.
Look for a moment at the manner in which God’s
wrath reveals itself, “Where God gave them up in
the lusts of their hearts.” That is not God ’o
wrath. That is the revelation of God’s wrath.
For, after all, the definition of wrath is “the op
posite of love.” God is normally love. The oppo
site of that is wrath. God may be expressing His
love in an earthquake, though we are not able to
see it. He expresses it in thousands of ways, and
we want to see just how God revealed His wrath
then.
Look at chapter one, verses 24-32. First, how
did he reveal his wrath unto them? He gave them
up. How 1 should hate to feel that God had given
me up, or had given my race up,’or had given my
town up. Have you ever stopped to think of what
it would mean for God to take his hands off and
let you go according to the natural bent of life?
That is just exactly what God did. He gave the
race up.
Now, in what particular did He give the race up?
“In the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness.”
That is how God did it. That is the way He re
vealed His wrath for the time' being. That is the
way God revealed Himself to them in the age in
which they lived, and He does it in the age in
which we live, if we fail to avail ourselves of the
way of escape.
There are four things here. First, that God
gave them up in their hearts. God turned their
hearts loose. He took His hands off and said, “Go
on and love everything that die natural, vile man
wants to love. I have got my hands off, and you
can go now.” That is the way God revealed His
wrath —by turning man loose. He had failed to
avail himself of the remedy for his salvation. God
had tried and tried, and men had wandered off
purposely, and so God gave them up, and their
hearts became darkened.
Then He took His hands off their bodies. After
that He took His hands off their passions, and that
awful description of the outcome is such that I
cannot comment on it. And then God gave them
up unto a reprobate mind. What does he mean by
a reprobate mind? He means this: That the word
reprobate comes from the words re, pro and bare,
which means this, “rejection after a second trial.”
God had given the race two great chances for re-
The Golden Age for September 5, 1907.
demption, and the race had failed. First, they re
fused the chance of law, then they refused the
chance in revelation. They turned their backs on
both, and God turned them loose. He tells us the
results of having a reprobate mind, “Being filled
with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetous
ness,” etc.
My! what a picture that is! And yet that is a
picture of the race.
*
Let us go just a step further and see something
of the manner of God’s wrath revealed in the fu
ture. We have been considering the manno;. of
God’s wrath jevealed for them at the present time.
Now for the future we have this: Judgment. God
visits His wrath upon us at the present time. Wo
have seen the manner of the visitation of His
wrath, that He turns loose our hearts; that He lets
them run wild; turns loose our bodies, turns loose
our passions, and gives ns over to the natural work
ings of a reprobate mind. For the future, God re
serves judgment. There are just four things that
I want to see:
First, it is a judgment according to truth. 1
remember a cartoon I once saw of a young
preacher. He had just returned from a theological
seminary with his theological degree, and he was
making his first sermon, and had taken for his
subject, “Truth.” On one side of him was a great
pile of books, and in his hand a pen. He had just
written his subject. His first division was, “Wha<
is Truth?” And he was looking at that pile of
books to find the answer to that question. Just
over him was an angel, holding in one hand a
Bible, and with her other she was pointing to it,
and saying, “Thy word is truth.”
We are to be judged according to truth. What
is truth? The truth of God revealed in the Bible.
I do not say that there is no truth in the works
of science, for there is; but it is not by that truth
that we are.to be judged.
The Apostle Paul was trying to make them sec
that in the last day we shall be judged according
to the Bible, and the truth of God in their heads.
Then you will see that it is a judgment according
to works. They are to be judged according to what
they have done, and according to what they have
not done. It is a judgment without respect to per
sons. That is stated to adjust the relationship
between the Jew and the Gentile. It is a judgment
according to the law* and the revelation, whether it
is the revelation of the law to the Jew or to the
Gentile. The law and the revelation, whether it is
the revelation of God in the law or the revelation
of God and the law in their inner consciences and
in nature, is the same truth provided for in the
word of God, and they are to be held in rigid judg
ment by it.
What about the heathen today that do not knew
anything about the gospel? They have got to
stand the test of the truth. The heathen today
have the same revelation that they had then in
their inner consciences. They have something with
in them that tells them of a standard that they
are to live up to.
Then, ycu will see that it is a judgment accord
ing to Paul himself. This gives me such a good
chance to say what 1 want to say. Some people say
to me, “Show me what Jesus said. Do not show me
what Paul said.” Let me say that the words of
Jesus have no more weight in the scripture than
the words of Paul. Paul was inspired to say what
he said by the same Spirit that inspired Jesus.
RESTATEMENT OF THE LAW OF SIN.
The last thought is the reiteration of the univer
sality of sin and the insufficiency of the law to
save, and all ’hat you need to do is to read* “Then
is none righteous, no, not one.”
Friends, this is exactly where the world stood
at the time when (he provision for the world’s
salvation culminated in the crucifixion of Jesu«.
What an awful picture! Hiw black and hideous!
The whole world in sin, and not one in the gr n nt
universe of God that did good. And yet people
say, “I do not gee ary need of Christ. I believe
that all that religion is, is doing good to your fellow
man and living right.” For four thousand years God
had been searching to find one good man, and final
ly wcu'nd up by saying, “There is none righteous,
no, not one.” Man failed in Eden. He failed to
keep the law. He failed to respond to the dictates
of his inner conscience; failed to see Him in the
things that He had made. God then turned him
loose and he went to the bad.
With unbridled hearts rhey loved everything
that v.’as dirty. With unbridled passions they went
worse than wild. With a reprobate mind they had
put themselves on a plane with the brute. And
the world at large is right there today. You need
not talk to me about this world getting better.
Some are getting better, and some are getting
worse. There are we today. Oh, that hopeless
picture! What a picture of corruption Jesus
looked down on when He started from His father’s
throne to do the work of human redemption l
*
Frantic *But Futile.
Pathos is seldom amusing, but we have found a
case in Cincinnati. Ordinarily, it is a part of our
religion to try to comfort those in distress but we
have found a case where we can offer no comfort.
We do not mean to “be bad,” but we are compell
ed to rejoice this time in the discomfiture of the
sorrowing. The brewers and .wholesale liquor deal
ers of the country are nearly “pestered to deash”;
over the spread of prohibition, especially in the; i
South, because their business is being either cur-- i
tailed or destroyed. We copy here, headlines and - J
all, the following dispatch to The Atlanta Constitu
tion: •
“Brewers Band for Protection —They Will Fight
the Spread of Local Option—Work to be Done
in South —Liquor Men Will Make a Special Ef
fort to Combat the Spread of Prohibition Senti- ’
ment in This Section.
“Cincinnati, Ohio, Aug. 29. —United action by
leading brewers of the United States against the
spread of the local option idea was begun in a secret
meeting in this city yesterday, news of which de
veloped today. It is proposed to adopt a definite
plan to stop the spread of the local option, es
pecially in the South. This was the principal ob
ject of the meeting.
“There was no - formal call issued and no pub
licity of the fact that there was to be a meeting.
Representatives of the big breweries of Chicago,
Milwaukee, St. Louis and Cincinnati were present.
The inroads that local option is making, especially
in the South, were thoroughly discussed, and it was
decided that sumo action would have to be taken.
“A committee was finally appointed and ways and
means for accomplishing the purposes of the meet
ing will be decided upon.”
Thus the brewers brawl. Poor fellows! How fu
tile their frantic efforts will prove! The intelligence
and the conscience of the nation are waking up
to the fact that there is no peace for breweries or
distilleries, or any of their accessories or products
in our commercial or moral life.
But organized effort calls for organized effort.
Let the work of the Anti-Saloon League be sup
ported and pushed forward a= never before. The
communities that have voted for prohibition must
enforce the law and see to it that only bed-rock
prohibitionists are elected to office for years to
come.
If we are as vigilant and brave as we ought to
be, the brewers and distillers will soon be forced to
see that there is a bettor business than the destruc
tion of life, character and property.
One For Tlvo.
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