Newspaper Page Text
2
TEXT—2 Cor. 2:1: “Having therefore
these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse
ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and
Spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of
God.”
ESPECIALLY ask your atten
tion to the last clause of this
verse, “Perfecting holiness in the
fear of God. Perhaps the most
misunderstood word in all the
Scriptures, and the most misun
derstood experience in Christian
life, is holiness. Some, by reason
of their extreme interpretation of
I
this word have driven others who are honest
seekers after the truth from it entirely, and
made the word itself repulsive. Others, be
cause of their fear that it will change their
lives and methods of conduct have ignored
the word entirely; so that from one cause or
another the word, holy, which is a Scriptural
word, and the experience, holiness, which is
a Scriptural experience, is practically with
out value to the Christian Church. This be
ing true, I feel that it will be well for us if
we shall take this hour for an exposition of
the word and the experience of holiness.
And I take it that no better text to set
forth the true Apostolic conception of a work
ing experience can be found than the words
that compose our text this morning, “Per
fecting holiness in the fear of God.” But this
text, as is true of most texts of Scripture,
for that matter, can only be properly under
stood when we take into consideration the
entire context, and here the context is large
ly the first and the second Epistles written
to the Corinthian Church.
In the first of these Epistles there is pre
sented the picture of the Christian Church
in disorder, living upon a purely human
plane, with its philosophy of life no higher
and no deeper than the life of the people that
surround the church. In the second Epistle
there is presented another picture of the
church, the picture of the Church in Christ,
moving steadily on from this low level of hu
man experience to the level of victory and
triumph. Practically the whole of the first
Epistle to the Corinthians is taken up in de
scribing this first picture, and practically the
whole of Second Corinthians is taken up in
describing the second picture.
In this picture of the Christian Church in
disorder, living upon this low plane, I see the
signs and the symptoms that invariably point
out such a church. They are seven in num
ber: factions, jealousy, strife, abuse of liber
ties, immorality, abuse of the Lord’s Supper,
errors in doctrine.
Then, in the second of these pictures, which
is the picture of the Christian Church, mov
ing on to victory, we see likewise seven signs
of victory: its triumph, its supply, its glory,
its trials, its hope, its motive, its final aim.
In the first of these pictures of the Church
in disorder, living upon the low plane of hu
man philosophy, we have set forth the actual
condition of the Church at Corinth. The
Church at Corinth was living just that life
described here. The second picture presents
us with the ideal toward which the Church
is directed to aim, and which the Apostle
himself has experienced. Coming out of these
two pictures, and espeically out of the second
picture of the Church in victory, we find the
Apostle submitting to this Church a three
fold appeal, and that three-fold appeal is as
follows: First, for consistency of life: “I en
treat you also that ye receive not the grace of
God in vain.” Second, for separation; entire
separation from all these worldly and sensual
things: “Be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath
righteousness with unrighteousness? and
A HOLY LIFE
Tabernacle Sermon by Rev. Len G. Broughton, D.D.
Stenographically reported for The Golden Age.—Copyright applied for.
what fellowship hath light with darkness?”
And what concord hath Christ with Belial?
or what part hath he that believeth with an
infidel ? And what agreement hath the tem
ple of God with idols? for ye are the temple
of the living God; as God hath said, I will
dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will
be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore come ye out from among them
and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch
not an unclean thing; and I will receive you.”
Then comes His appeal for perfecting holi
ness, which is our text.
This brings us, after much -preliminary
work, which sems to me to be necessary, to
the consideration of our subject proper for
this morning. What do we understand by
holiness ? I wish, first of all, to answer that
question. I say to you first that holiness is
not some strange and inexplicable experi
ence which simply enables man to shout
“Glory! hallelujah!” and see and say and
hear and do strange and inexplicable things.
We may have that experience out of the con
sciousness of holiness, or we may not. It de
pends upon the temperament that one has
as to whether these things will come. Many
people have fancied that this experience itself
is holiness, and therefore they have spent
the major part of their lives seeking after
what they call holiness and never finding it,
and at last they go down in defeat and dis
couragement. Many other people, by some
peculiar ecstasy of soul and spirit, when they
feel happy like shouting, when they hear and
see and are able to do strange things, fancy
that that is holiness, and they are satisfied
to go no further. You will pardon me if I
give you an experience which I once witness
ed illustrative of what I mean. I was attend
ing what was known as a holiness convention,
and a bright woman, after having been a long
time at the altar seeking holiness, sprang to
her feet and leaped on the platform and be
gan running up and down in a very strange
way and finally she turned and faced the
audience in which I sat, and said: “My
friends, I am so happy I do not know what
to do. I feel exactly like a chicken in a red
hot skillet.” She spied me, and made for
me, and began to beg me to come to the altar
with her and seek holiness, and I said, “Why
do you want me to get it?” She said, “Well,
it will make you feel so happy.” I said, “I
would not feel like you said you felt for all
this world. I do not want to feel like a
chicken in a red-hot skillet. I had rather feel
like a man than anything in the world. And
in the next place, if I should be so unfortu
nate as to feel like a chicken I do not want
to feel like a chicken in a red-hot skillet.”
Then I tried to preach to her what I believed
to be sane, scriptural holiness. I may have
dampened her ardor, but I am sure I
strengthend her intellect. So lam free to
say to you with all charity and love for every
body that differs with me about this matter
and some of the best people in all the world
do differ with me, in all my study of the
Scripture I am convinced that that is not in
any sense Scriptural holiness.
Again, I want to say to you, holiness is not
freedom from temptation. Our Lord Himself
was tempted, and tempted like unto our
selves. I have heard people declare that they
had reached a state where they were entirely
free from the temptation of the tempter;
where he never approached them at all. I
should hate to feel in my heart that I had
reached that point, as much as I hate to wres
tle with temptation and as much time as it
takes me to wrestle with it, and as much
thought and prayer, and watchfulness as I
have had to exercise with reference to it.
For I should know, if I had reached that
The Golden Age for May 11,1911.
state, that I had dropped into a state in
which I was so worthless that even the devil
would not have me. I hope that I will always
be of sufficient force and power in the cause
of righteousness in this world and in the sal
vation of the lost race as that the devil will
always feel that he would be delighted if he
could only get my life. I take it that the
devil had far rather get a good life down in
the dirt than to keep a bad man that he al
ready has down. For that man who is al
ready down does not matter much; every
body knows it and nobody is at all surprised
at anything he does, but the moment that
a godly man whose influence and power is felt
world-wide, is dragged down from his place
of usefulness and power into the dirt and
mire of the world’s sin, that moment the
whole Kingdom of Christ is made to suffer.
And the devil knows that, and knowing that,
rest assured he is going to be after you more
and more as you grow better and better; and
one of the evidences that you may take unto
yourself of your growth in grace is the in
creased effort on the part of the devil to get
your life. He knows he can not get your
soul, for once your soul is redeemed, it is re
deemed, for both worlds, but he wants to
get a man’s life.
Again let me say that holiness is not essen
tially some second blessing which is entirely
apart from the first, which we call the bless
ing of salvation, into which one plunges as a
full-grown man. I take it from my study
of the Scriptures that no man ever gets in
his whole future life any cleaner than he is
the moment he is regenerated. I take my
stand here this morning to say to you that
regeneration is the cleanest piece of work
that God or man can do. What does our con
text set forth this morning? That a man
born in Christ is made a new creature, as
the Revised Version translates it, “a new cre
ation.” Old things, that is, the things char
acteristic of the old order, are passed away,
and all things are become new. He is a clean
man, and he can not get any cleaner, never
mind what the process is that he may after
wards pass through, he can not make himself
any cleaner than he is when he emerges as a
new-born babe from the hand of Jesus Christ.
And that is his standing. He should realize
his standing. He may live for the whole of
his life, never realizing his cleansed condi
tion, and therefore he may never bring his
life to the level of his real standing before
God. But that does not change his standing;
his standing is perfect, clean every whit is
the work of his salvation.
It is as a man who has been given a mine;
we will say a gold mine, worth millions of dol
lars. He has been given it in fee simple; he
can not transfer it to another. It is his and
he may make out of it just what he will, but
he lives for years without ever sticking a
pick in the ground, or picking up a nugget of
gold, but he has the mine just the same.
Afterwards he realizes the gift and begins to
put a pick in the ground and to gather up the
pebbles of gold, cast them into the refinery
and bring out the precious metal and sell
it, and the first thing he knows he has money
pouring in faster than he can count it. He
isn’t a whit richer than before he realized
it; potentially it was his. It was his in fee
simple, but not in realization until he worked
it out.
A man potentially is as holy in his regen
eration as ever he will be, but while he is
thus holy potentially, he will not reap the
benefits of his holiness, nor will the world see
his holiness, nor the cause of Christ be ad
vanced until he works it out; and as he real
izes the contents of his mine and works upon
(Continued on Page 14.)