The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1903-02-26
. SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
GODS PLAN FOR U.s."
xhe Rev. DIR. j. Wilbur Chapman Tells of
How the Believers May Experience
Both JOY and Peace, Blessing ana
Power-A High Ideal For Every Life.

How the Believers May Experience
Both JOY and Peace, Blessing and
Powered High Ideal For Every Life.
New YORK CITY.-The following sermon
rs one of series preached by the famous
evangelist, the Rev. DR.. j. Wilbur Chap
man. 1t is entitled Goods Plan For Us"
and was founded on the text: "Not as
though / had already attained, either were
already perfect, but follow after, if that
apprehended of Christ Jesus" Philip
pans iii: II.
God has plan for every life, and when
this plan is realized there is always In the
experience of the believer both JOY and
peace, blessing and power. Ii any one IS
rience, hot to-day and cold tomorrow,
near enough to Christ to-day so that he
may almost touch Him, and so far away
tomorrow that he questions If he has ever
been saved, this is certain evidence that
he has not allowed God to work out His
to be &C 'omplished by the Holy Spirit of
God. An experience of unrest dishonors
God, and when you find heart in which
there is this unrest and dissatisfaction you
always find life in which God has not
yet finished His work. peace | leave
with you; My peace give unto. YOU, was
written for such an one, and is his inherit
ance. While it would be a most difficult
thing to define peace, yet possibly the best
definition would be to take it's opposite,
and so it would read like this: Peace is
the opposite of unrest, of confusion, of
strife. This blessing is for every one of
Gods children, if they will but claim it.
It is no more disastrous for ones arm to
be out of its socket than for ones life to
run contrary to the plan of God. Paul
evidently had this in mind when he said:
eff I may apprehend that for which I am
also unprecedented of Christ Jesus" 1t
would be no more disastrous for planet
to go swinging out of it's orbit than for
life to run contrary to the plan of God.
The fact is our crosses in this world al
ways come to us when our wills run con-
trary to the will of God. One piece of
wood placed over another and running in
the contrary direction always makes a
this life when our wills run parallel to that
of God. Though we may be obliged to
live in poverty and meet with what this
world calls disaster and failure, if we are
perfectly sure we are doing according to
Gods will we may say with the apostle:
"All things work together for good"
God has high ideal for every life, and
we have but to read the Scriptures to
find this to be true. We find in Romans
i: 7, that we are called Saints" this is
our name. We learn in Corinthians iii:
9. that we are "laborers together with
IL
9. that it is our privilege to be in fellow
ship with Gods Son, and this word 'fel-
lowship" is literally partnership" In
Revelation ii: II, God promises to give to
us His own hidden mamma to eat. Of this
the world knows nothing-it can neither
give it nor take it away. In the 25th
Psalm, 18th verse, we have a pledge that
God win tell to us His secrets, but it is not
to be forgotten that we only tell secrets
to those who are near to US. God never
gives His secrets to those who are out of
fellowship with Him, and every man is out
of fellowship who has in his heart any I'M
confessed or ,unforgiven sin. In Philip
plans iii: 20 the conversation of the child
of God is described. 1t is to be in heav-
en-, from whence also we look for the Sa-
viour, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Ephe-
slams ii: 10 the whole of the Christian
character is described. We are told that
we are His workmanship" and the word
workmanship is literally poem, so that in
Gods plan we are all that is complete and
beautiful.
We are very sure that we have not at
tanned unto this plan.
We are likewise confident that falling
short of it we are not satisfied, and our
cry is that of the apostle (Romans Z: 24)
ooh, .wretched man that am, who shall
We may have Gods power. 2 Cor. xii: 9
MY grace is sufficient for thee; for my
strength is made perfect in weakness.
Most gladly therefore win I rather glory
in my infirmities, that the power of Christ
may rest upon me-" Let us. therefore
Ghost as an experience and talk about the
better Christian life as an "it;" let us re-
member ever after this that Christ is the
power of God. To exalt Him, to follow
Him, to live His life, and to enthrone Him
In our lives, is power always, and never
can be anything else.
We may have Gods rest. Hebrews iv:
j to 3-"Let us therefore fear, lest, a
promise being left us of entering into His
rest, any of you should seem to come
short of it. For unto us was the gospel
preached, as well as unto them. but the
being mixed with faith in them that heard
it. For we which have believed do enter
into rest, as he said, AS 1 have sworn in
my wrath, if they shall enter into my
rest; although the works were finished
from the foundation of the world"
1t is most significant that in the tenth
verse of this fourth chapter of Hebrews
we read: ''For he that has entered into
his rest, he also hath ceased from his own
works, as God did from His" Oh, that we
might all of us learn that it is when we
cease to be selfcentred and become Christ
centred, it is when we live lives of unset
fishness and therefore for the glory of
AOOfA
in a word, it is when we cease from our
own works that we enter into Gods rest.
We may have Gods holiness. Hebrews
xii: 10-"For they verify for few days
chastened us after their own pleasure, but
He for our profit, that we might be par
takers of His holiness" Not infreauently
we find Christian people who are afraid of
the word holiness. and yet the Bible has
distinctly declared that without holiness
no man shall see God. IF we are shutting
Him out of our lives then we are depriving
ourselves of our birthright as His children.
We might sum up Gods plan for our
lives under three heads:
1. 1t is Gods will that we should be re-
generated. John i: Is, 14-"Which were
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, the
glory as Of the only begotten of the Faith
er. full of grace and truth"
Regeneration is not working over of
the old nature, for that which is born of
the flesh is flesh, aud never can be any
thing else. It may be educated flesh, cul-
tured flesh, but after all it is flesh, and is
displeasing to God. It does not come as
the result of reformation, for while re-