Asbury Park, N J Pastor Russell is here in attendance at a big general convention of International Bible Students' Association, which began its session Friday and will continue twelve days. Three general conventions of this association are now in progress, the other two being at Columbus, Ohio, and Clinton, Iowa. Upwards of 2,000 delegates are in attendance at each convention. Being president of the association, Pastor Russell expects to be present three days at each of the assemblies.
Two sessions are held daily in each of the cities, and the pastor's famous Creation Drama is exhibited each evening. There being four parts to the drama, three full presentations will be given.
Pastor Russell's theme today was one of great interest. The discourse set forth the philosophy of the untold sufferings of Christians throughout this gospel dispensation. Part IV of the Photo-Drama of Creation, now on exhibition, both at home and abroad, depicts the unwritten history of the church of Christ and enables those who see it to realize to some extent what it has cost true Christians to "follow His steps." The pastor's text was, "Jehovah hath appointed me to preach good tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted." Isa. 61:1.
The pastor opened his discourse by drawing attention to the statement that the gospel message is for the meek, the broken-hearted. During the millennial reign of Christ God will take away the stoniness of heart from mankind and will give, instead, hearts of flesh. Under the blessed conditions of the kingdom, hard, selfish hearts will gradually become soft, tender, kind, gentle. But now, in advance of Messiah's kingdom, God is seeking those who are seeking Him. Those who are not especially seeking Him are not likely to find Him.
Preaching the gospel to the meek is the work of this age. This is the only class which God wishes to have now. He is seeking the class that desire to be the bride of Christ, Jesus' joint heirs in the Messianic kingdom. Therefore the message is not such as would suit the hard-hearted. Only the tender-hearted care to know about the love of God, the mercy of God, the forgiveness of sins, the privilege of returning to the Father's house and of having Jesus as their Savior.
The pastor believes that in the past we have had a wrong idea as to whom the gospel message is to go. We went out into the highways and byways to find those who were very wicked blasphemers, etc., thinking that these were etc., thinking that these were the ones with whom we were to deal. The scriptures do not authorize any such idea. A person living in unrepented sin is not in the proper condition to receive God's great plan of the ages, the speaker claimed. God has declared that "none of the wicked shall understand." He does not wish them to do so. The very reverse is true. His purpose is to bind up the broken-hearted.
God's message speaks peace to those who are in trouble and who are looking to Him, seeking the righteousness which He provides. Some apparently have made a great mistake in thinking the gospel is a sledgehammer with which they are to break men's hearts. The speaker does not know of any scriptural commission for any of the people of God to break the hearts of men. On the contrary, he thinks that the devil does most of such work.
There are two conversions, declared the pastor. The first is a turning from sin; the second, a turning to God. Those desirous of approaching God are seeking to leave sin. Those who are living in sin wish to be away from God. We cannot go in two directions at once. The course which God would have any pursue is this: When one finds that he is a sinner, he should repent and turn away from sin; then, when he learns that God has made an arrangement by which sinners may be reconciled to Himself, he should ascertain what steps he should take in order to obtain his share in that reconciliation.
While turning from sin may in some respects be called a conversion, yet it is not the principal conversion. Only those who take the step of full consecration to the Lord may receive the Holy Spirit and obtain a clear view of the divine plan. As the apostle says: "The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
Then the pastor explained that those begotten of the Holy Spirit are scripturally called children of God, heirs of God, joint heirs with Jesus Christ. If faithful unto death, they will be glorified in the first resurrection. Meantime they are to grow in grace, knowledge, love and all other fruits and graces of the Spirit grow by their trials, by their obedience, by striving against the world, the flesh and the devil. All this must be done before this class will be ready for their resurrection change. In the present time, however, all who are begotten of the Holy Spirit not only belong to the church in general, with all others of the people of God, this one brotherhood of Christ on the spiritual plane, but they are also reckoned as members of the body of Christ on the fleshly plane the earthly plane.
From this viewpoint, Christ has been suffering in the flesh throughout the gospel age. St. Peter says that the prophets of Israel testified beforehand of the sufferings of the Christ and of the glory to follow; and hence he urges the church to arm themselves with the same mind that Jesus had. St. Paul speaks of filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of the Christ all the members of His body. After these sufferings are filled up, then the glory will follow. The sufferings are not yet complete.
The speaker went on to explain how trials and discipline are means of developing Christian character, preparing the child of God for future service in the kingdom. The privilege of suffering with Christ in the flesh is something to be appreciated. Whoever has trials in the flesh because of Christ, because of being His disciple, has occasion for rejoicing. Such should continue faithful, in order that by [HGL601] and by as a polished jewel he may be ready for a glorious setting in the immortality of the future. An uncut, unpolished jewel is not worth much. Its real worth is brought forth in the cutting. So the Lord gave His jewels the cutting and polishing necessary to enable them to reflect the glorious light of the goodness of God.
Jewels do not all require the same amount of polishing, declared the pastor. A small diamond can be cut and polished more easily than can a large one. Those of the people of God who undergo severe trials and afflictions may hope that they will be accounted large jewels in the hands of the Lord. The larger the diamond, the more work in cutting and polishing.
Then the pastor discussed the terms upon which one may make his calling and election sure to a position in the glorified body of Christ beyond the veil. From the time when one's consecration is accepted by the Father and he is begotten of the Holy Spirit, his name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life as written a member of the body of Christ. To these our Lord declares that if they are faithful He will not blot their names from His book. These are to remain faithful to what they agreed to do to give their little all in sacrifice. On that condition they were accepted and had their names recorded.
But if any such deny Christ, He will deny them. If they continue to confess Him, He will confess them. To confess Christ is to live for Him day by day confessing Him in the way in which one uses time, influence, money, talents; confessing Him in business, in everything that is either said or done. But if any consecrated child of God should deny Christ by seeking to live after the world, by neglecting the covenant of sacrifice, such would thus demonstrate his unworthiness of a place in the bride class the church in glory.
Should anyone ask the pastor why he lays so much stress upon consecration, he would reply that, according to scripture, God is not now dealing with the world in general; that in order to bring our petitions to the throne of heavenly grace we must get into relationship with God; and that there is only one way by which this can be done consecration. To emphasize his point the speaker used the illustration of a wedding in the time of our Lord. On such occasions it was customary for the host to furnish all the guests with a plain white linen garment, which was to be worn over their own garments. Whether the guests wore rich or poor raiment, the wedding garment covered everything, and made them all brethren for the time being; for they were guests of the same host.
Applying his illustration, Pastor Russell explained that all consecrated Christians have accepted God's invitation to the marriage of the Lamb the Son of God. But no matter how well we may arrange our own garments, each must put on the wedding garments, or else remain away from the feast. The moment of consecration is the moment of receiving the robe of Christ's righteousness, and only those who continue to wear that robe will have entrance to the wedding. By nature mankind are sinners. There is only one way to get rid of sins by belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, and full consecration to do the will of God. Whoever really believes that Jesus died for his sins will act upon his belief by presenting his body a living sacrifice.
Continuing the figure of the wedding garment, the pastor declared that the robe put on by the Christians who desired to have entrance to the marriage of the lamb was white and clean, representing his full justification at the moment of consecration all blemishes of the flesh being covered with the merit of Christ. The scriptures tell us that those who ultimately enter into the marriage will be those who have kept their garments unspotted from the world. Since all unrighteousness is sin, every sin is a spot upon the robe, whether it be committed willfully or ignorantly. All faithful children of God should use all diligence in keeping their garments free from blemish. This may be done by daily thinking about the robe, and nightly asking the Lord to remove each spot to forgive each failure made that day. The blood of Jesus Christ keeps cleansing all who ask that they be cleansed.
This is the heavenly Father's arrangement for His children. He desires them to walk circumspectly, watching where they tread. Thus they learn every detail in respect to their own imperfections. No one can live for even one day without trespassing upon the perfect law of God; for by nature we are all imperfect. In heart the child of God does not sin; the new creature does not sin. It is merely that the flesh is weak. But we have the comforting assurance of the scripture that "if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Our Lord is there to make good with the Father for all the Adamic weaknesses.
The pastor then discussed two kinds of sin, one of which he declared to be forgivable and the other unforgivable. If to any extent the mind consents to the deed, to that extent the sin is willful. Then only that portion which was not willful will be forgiven. Whatever part was not forgivable is punishable. The individual will receive stripes, punishments of one sort or another, proportionate to the degree in which the will consented to the sin.
There is naturally much sympathy between the flesh and the mind that sometimes even the will of the new creature permits the flesh to take it by force, as it were. This should not be; the will is responsible, and because of its carelessness will receive stripes of some kind. But so long as the individual feels sorry as soon as the yielding to temptation has passed, he may know that his will does not love sin. Should his will ever change and prefer sin, he would not be sorry after the sin was committed.
It was then shown that every consecrated child of God must be an overcomer in fighting the good fight of faith, and in obedience to God must put down everything that pertains to sin an unrighteousness in himself, and stand for that which is pleasing in the sight of God. This is the test of our loyalty to Him and to principles of His righteous government. Many sins are really weaknesses of the flesh which overcome the will momentarily. Just here the new creature must conquer in the fight. He must get the victory over the flesh. If we sin, if we trespass, we must go to the fountain of grace and be forgiven. [HGL602] The great difficulty, the pastor declared, seems to be that after we have had some experiences of this kind, we properly enough feel ashamed that we have not done better. This is the time when the Christian is in danger. He is liable to fail to ask forgiveness at the throne of the heavenly grace; for he feels that already he has been forgiven perhaps many times for the same trespass. Therefore he may try to forget the spot, to forget the "robe," almost to forget the Lord. Gradually a veil comes between him and God; the Father is not so near and so dear as once He was. While He is still his Heavenly Father, while still the erring one trusts in Him, nevertheless there is a lack of the fellowship of the Spirit. Earth-born clouds have hidden the Father's face.
This is the experience of hundreds of the people of God; for they cannot be in His presence with spots upon their robes, and they do not resolve that they will not live away from Him. They cannot have fellowship with the Lord while their robes are spotted nor can they have proper Christian life while absent from the Lord. The lesson on this point, the speaker declared, is that we watch and keep humble. To come to the Lord and say, "O Lord, another time I have failed! How ashamed I am!" is to take the right step. Humility is one of the very foundations upon which all other graces must be built. So the Apostle Peter says: "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time."
The number of those without spot or wrinkle or any such thing is very small, said the pastor. Many Christians have not kept their wedding robes with sufficient care, and thus have shown their lack of appreciation of the wedding and of their invitation to attend. If the attention of such be called to the spots they try to put them out of sight, to ignore them, to declare that everybody has spots on his robe. This is an unwise procedure, for the robe is our passport into the kingdom. If the spots are not removed they gradually become more and more a hindrance to those who seek to be accounted worthy of a place in the bride class. The pastor then reminded his audience that when the Christian first received his robe it was pure white, with a certain design stamped thereon; and that he was expected to embroider it with the character likeness of the Lord. If he has gotten the robe spotted and bedraggled he should go to the Lord in prayer and persist until he has assurance of forgiveness and cleansing. We read, "If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." It is not merely a matter of love, but of justice, on our part. The Heavenly Father made the arrangement; Jesus has died, paid our penalty and imputed of His own merit sufficient to cleanse all unintentional spots. Forgiveness is to be had for the asking.