"I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost." (Romans 9:1.)
A lie is an intentional violation of the truth, a false statement made knowingly and deliberately for the purposes of deception. It is anything which misleads, deceives or disappoints, anything false, hollow and deceptive. It is to profess to have something which we know we do not possess. Men lie to men, but in the last analysis all lying is unto God. Peter said to Ananias, "Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost . . . thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God." In fact all sin is sin against God. There are powerless lives all around us; men and women are loud in their profession and yet whose lives in the home, in the community, in the church, are absolutely devoid of any spiritual power, and "there is a reason." We talk glibly about consecration, forgetting that consecration means abandonment unto the Holy Ghost of the whole life of the individual, and all that life means unto the one will of God for all time and all eternity. Martin Wells Knapp said, "Consecration means taking your hands off of that which belongs unto God." And when we consider that all we are and all we have and all our present and all the future is ours only because given us of God, we begin to see what it means to be abandoned unto Him. It means a glad acceptance of all the will of God for ourselves unto the farthest possibility. And now please remember that consecration and power go together. The very moment a soul abandons itself unto God, that very moment the Holy Ghost comes in as the Sanctifier. It is a principle in philosophy that nature abhors a vacuum, and so does grace. God is glad to give the Holy Ghost unto all them that obey Him." He says so in His Word, and all the theories men can invent to cover their lack of experience, cannot displace the truth. This leads to the inquiry, "Why, then, are there so many powerless lives all around us?" Listen to God speaking in the Word, "Ye shall receive power, the Holy Ghost coming upon you." Power to be a living witness for God. Not to shout, though that is good when He puts the shout in us; not to jump, though that is all right when we delight our selves in the Lord, for delighting means in the original, "jumping up and down in the Lord"; but living for God, in harmony with Him, walking with Him, keeping step with Him, in cheerful obedience to all His will, all the time and everywhere. Why, then, are there so many powerless lives? Men are lying to God! Charles G. Finney was the leading evangelist of the nineteenth century, wonderfully owned of God. He was engaged in a meeting at a certain place and church, and a Presbyterian Elder came across the country to the meeting to see him and get advice. This man had been seeking the baptism of the Holy Ghost, but thus far had failed to receive Him. Mr. Finney was being entertained in the home of an elder who had received the Spirit, and the visiting elder was also a guest in the same home. As they sat down at the table for dinner the visiting elder was so full of the desire, that he could not wait, but immediately asked the elder, his host, "How did you receive the Holy Ghost?" And back came the answer, "I stopped lying to God." At once the man rose from the table, went to his room and came back in five minutes, his face all aglow, and said, "I told God I had told Him my last lie, on my knees or off." Oh, that all churches, all men, all women, all who profess the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ would quit lying to God. All churches? Yes. Here is a present unto you this church, to be dedicated to the service and worship of Almighty God." Hear the minister: "We dedicate this church to His service for the reading of the Scriptures, the preaching of the Word of God, the administration of the sacraments, and for all other exercises of religious worship." Go along the street on which that church stands in a few weeks and read the Bulletin Board, "A chicken-pie social, Saturday night, twenty-five cents. All are welcome." That church is a lie before God and the world. It was dedicated to the worship of Almighty God, and here it is used for revellings and banquetings, for guzzling. Revival services held for ten days -- a kind of a periodical spasm, something religious must be done to wipe away the reproach, to make the world overlook the lie. An evangelist must be sent for; there is not enough spiritual life and power in the church to keep a weekly prayer meeting on fire for one night; a revival must be imported, and when the imported revival is over the imported evangelist will quite likely take away with him the imported revival. I have a firm conviction that any church that cannot have a revival without importing an evangelist, the whole outfit ought to go to the altar -- minister and congregation. In my pastorates I used to invite an evangelist to come and help me, because I wanted my people to hear other men, and I wanted to hear them myself, and God blessed in the whole business, and the pastor and people were all ready to back the evangelist up and did not first have to go to the altar to get ready for the revival. Praise the Lord!
Men are lying to God. Dr. Keen once said: "Seventy-five per cent of the professing Christians that I am called upon to pray with I have to pray that they be made ready." He was speaking of those with whom he prayed on their death beds. Listen to this man pray. He is sick, very sick, or else he would not have prayed: "O Lord, spare me, raise me up from this bed of sickness and I will serve You all the days of my life." God spares that man's life, raises him up, and he goes right on living the same old life. What is that man's life? It is a living lie! A lie unto God. An old sea captain was sitting in a parlor, telling the friends how he had been shipwrecked, was floating on the sea for twenty-four hours, holding on to a floating mast, hoping some vessel might come that way and rescue him. His listeners were spellbound, but one of them had a question he wanted to ask, and so he said, "Captain, may I ask you a question?" "Certainly, sir." "Did you not promise the Lord if He would spare you that you would serve Him?" And quick as a flash came the answer, "None of your business, sir!" But the next day the Captain came around and said, "I beg your pardon, sir; I was very rude yesterday. You touched a sore spot. I did promise God when I was floating out there on the ocean, that I would serve Him -- and I have not done it." That captain's life was a lie -- a living lie. Do you remember the promise you made the time you were sick? Have you kept the promise? Broken vows and promises made to God stand in the way of your peace and salvation. There are lies to be straightened out, and the time will come when you will remember them and tell God you lied, and ask Him to forgive you. I knew a man who was standing in his parlor, and in front of him was a little white casket, and in it a precious little one God had taken to Himself. By the side of the doctor stood an old friend, a man of God, and the doctor said, "Brother F____, I remember as I stand by this casket the vows I made unto God and did not keep." Oh, he thought of them now, and the lies oppressed his very soul. Well do so many sing, "Broken vows and disappointments thickly strewn along the way." Here is a meeting in progress and souls are at the altar; some are praying very earnestly. Hear this man pray, "O Lord, I give myself unto Thee, soul and body, for time and eternity. I say yes to all thy will. I abandon myself to Thee forever, in the name of Him who died for me, who shed His blood to wash away my sin." I am expecting something to happen. I am ready to shout over that fellow. But nothing happens -- no fire falls. What is the matter? He does not mean it. It is only lip deep. He did not pray from his heart and mean it. In other words. he is lying to God. There must be obedience before there can be faith. The Holy Ghost comes where He is really wanted, and comes suddenly: and where there is His presence, there is power and fire.
Hear this man pray, "Lord, I am Thine, Thine forever, to be Thine alone." No fire, and he goes out and flirts with the world, runs with the world's people, looks like the world. There is an old adage that comes to me just now, and it is this: "You cannot hunt with the hounds and run with the hare." I wish all professing folks would remember that. It would keep them out of lots of bad company. Here is a man and woman come to me to be 'married. I tell them to stand, the gentleman on the right of the lady, and I ask him, "Wilt thou have this woman to be thy wedded wife? Wilt thou love, honor, cherish, and forsaking all others keep thee only unto her so long as you both do live?" And he says, "I will." I then ask the woman, "Wilt thou have this man to be thy wedded husband so long as you both do live? Wilt thou love, honor, cherish, and forsaking all others, keep thee only unto him so long as you do both live?" And she answers, ((I will." And then I pronounce them husband and wife in the name of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder. Now is it so that that man has no right to look at another woman, nor to flirt with another woman? That woman has no right to make eyes at another man, no right to flirt with another man? You say yes;. and so God in His Word says, "Come out from among them and be ye separate." A real consecrated life is a separated life. Old world, good-bye -- and good-bye forever.
No Christian can flirt with the world, wear the world's garb, and keep right with God. I once heard Caughey, the celebrated Irish evangelist, say, "You cannot let the devil be your tailor, nor your milliner, nor your dressmaker." My father and mother were converted in old Green Street Methodist Church, in Trenton, N. J., under the labors of Rev. Charles Pitman, and I have heard them say that at night, after the altar services were closed, one could go all along the altar and pick up the feathers and flowers and jewelry. I was in a meeting in the Holiness Church at Huntington,
W. Va. A woman came to the altar with a hat on her head that had on it a big ostrich plume. She came again and again; no one said a word about such things, but one afternoon she put her hand up and pulled off the big feather. When the meeting closed, her daughter picked the feather up and said, "Mamma, here is your feather." The mother said, "I never want to see the thing again." Oh, the Holy Ghost is always faithful, and He works along the same old lines.
Here is a church wedding. They have imported an organist of ability, the church is splendidly decorated, the bridesmaids are arrayed in fine linen and purple, the little relative is there carrying a lily in which is a ring. The bridal party walk up the aisle to the peals of the wedding march; the whole thing passes off beautifully, without a hitch. The couple go home, when the following conversation takes place: "John, did you hear how finely the organist played the wedding march?" And John says, "No." "Well, John, you noticed how beautifully the bridesmaids were dressed, did you not?" And he said, "No." "But, John, you must certainly have seen how sweetly the little girl looked as she walked up the aisle carrying the ring?" And again John said, "No." "Well, John, please tell me, what did you see, anyhow?" He said, "I did not see anybody but you." That is the ideal for the Christian who is abandoned unto the Holy Ghost, who has given himself to Jesus. The constant song of his heart is,
Since my eyes were fixed on Jesus', I've lost sight of all beside, So enchained my spirit's vision, Gazing at the Crucified.
Jesus and only Jesus can fill the vision of the sanctified soul. God help us all to get the vision. I was in a meeting in Indianapolis; there came a man to the altar, a local preacher; alongside of him was a preacher, also seeking, dressed like a fashion plate. He was seeking the blessing, but before he got very far he found out he needed to get saved, and God did save him, and Sister Sadie Camly of that city, had the privilege afterward of seeing him get the blessing as she prayed for him. But it is the other fellow I want you to see. How he did wriggle and squirm, and squirm and wriggle. He would lie on the altar, first in one position and then in another; and he would groan, and groan again and again, and I finally said to one of the brethren, "What is the matter with that fellow, anyhow?" And they said, "He has got a farm." Now a farm is a good thing to have, especially in these days of high cost of living; but the trouble was putting that farm on the altar. The most tender place about some men is their pocket. To pray, "O Lord, Thou canst have all that I have," and not to put the farm on, is lying to God. I think it is the height of meanness to look God in the face and say, "One tenth Thine and nine tenths mine." I have been in meetings where there was a silence as soon as I began to talk about tithing; but some people begin to get hilarious because they tithed, gave God one tenth, gave Him what was His already; and what if one withheld -- you were a robber and a thief. I hold that no one gives God a single cent who does not give more than a tenth. God says, the tithe is Mine. This is the Word and under the Dispensation of the Holy Ghost all we have is the Lord's, and making a profession of having the Holy Ghost and yet withholding from God is lying to God.
Here is a man who is dead to the world, and those are the kind of people I am looking for. But how can one be dead to the world and yet get over on to the world's territory, enjoy the world's people, follow the world's fashions. Ungodly men and women are today setting the styles for the world, and professing Christians are changing their garbs at the behest of the devil's fashion makers. Dead to self. That is the last thing to die. The first temptation was an appeal to self. "Thou shalt be as God." And the thing took, and man fell. Few people today are saying, "Blot me out that Israel may live," like that man back there on the mount with God. No wonder God took him up to talk face to face with Him. Let me alone, said the Almighty One, and I will blot Israel out and make of thee a great and mighty nation. That promise would have won a Caesar, or a Napoleon, or an Alexander at once; but this man said, "Blot me out and let Israel live." He was dead to self. No wonder the Holy Ghost records he "was the meekest man on the face of the earth." But here is the truth, the eternal fact -- Self Must Die -- or we will die, and that eternally. The Apostle said, "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
How did you pray last Watch night, do you remember? Was it anything like this: "O Lord, by Thy grace this shall be the best year of my life." "I will walk in all the light that God gives me." Have you done it? Does the Holy Ghost and your own conscience join with you in saying yes? Have you fellowship with Him? Are you cleansed from all sin? You are if you are walking in the light. By their fruits you shall know them. This applies to us as well as to others. If their is no fellowship, there is no cleansing, for the two go together: where there is one there is the other. Have you prayed in the closet, in the secret place, at the family altar? I have seen men who were in the church in good standing, but they had no family altar in their homes. Have you studied the Word of God? Jesus said search the Scriptures. The Holy Ghost said give attendance to reading. Have you? Are you in partnership with God? Do you put God first? The first sentence in the Bible is, "In the beginning God." The first table in the Decalogue puts God first: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." The first sentence in the Lord's Prayer (commonly so called) is, "Our Father who art in heaven." The whole Book teaches God wants you in partnership with Himself. Write it out so big the whole world can see it, and then display it so three worlds will know it -- God Almighty, The Triune God and John Smith.
Obedience to God is the keynote to victory. Emotion is good, but without obedience it is good for nothing. Obedience without emotion, without one single bit of feeling, is pleasing to God. To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. The Holy Ghost is given unto them who obey Him.
In closing, let me call your attention to a victor who would, under any circumstance, keep his vows made to God. You will find him mentioned in the roll call of heroes of whom the world was not worthy, but God found them of sufficient worth to put them in the hall of eternal fame, where angels and men could read their names and deeds, and feel good while doing so. I see him kicked out by his own flesh and blood because they said, "Jephthah, you are the son of a strange woman, and we do not want you around." And out he went. He gathers around him a band of valiant fellows, who perhaps like himself, had been kicked out, and he wins his way, acquires a name for himself and his band. After a while the Ammonites oppress the children of Israel, and they are unable to deliver themselves, and would you believe it, they turn to the man they had kicked out, and they fairly beg him to come and deliver them, but he reminds them that they kicked him out, hated him and expelled him from his father's house; but still they begged, until at last he said, "If I come and the Lord delivers the children of Ammon into my hand, shall I be the head of Israel?" And they said, "Yes, you shall be the head." Then this man prayed and said, "O God, if thou wilt deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, if thou wilt give the victory to Israel, I will give thee the first thing that cometh forth of mine house." And he meant it. He spoke from his heart, and God knew it and gave him the victory. He went out and led the hosts of Israel to battle and he smote Ammon with a very great slaughter. He returns to his home, the folks come out to meet him with timbrels and dances, they sing praises unto the God of Israel, they mention the name of Jephthah, but look, look toward his home, who is that coming forth from his doors? It is his own daughter. Will he be true? Will he keep his vows. This man who lived more than a thousand years before Calvary? Hear him, "Alas my daughter, thou hast brought me very low and thou art one of them that trouble me, for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back." Have you opened your mouth to the Lord and gone back? I say the truth in Christ and lie not, the Holy Ghost and my own conscience being my witnesses; God requires truth in the inward parts and in the inward parts He will make us to know wisdom. Search me, O God and see if there be any wicked way in me.
