The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1921-12-23
Sunday School
Lesson

Sunday School Lesson for Dec. %
The committee has given for our
subject: Review"
Golden text, Eph. Glib: Wherefore
take up the whole armor of God,
that We may be able to stand in the
evil day, and, having done all, to
stand
One would think after all the long
years of time that we'd get out OF the
slavery of narrow views and aims,
but it's a wonder how few. You know
one said we came from the monkey,
but an honest thinking man is more
ready to say that some are not COM
ing from him but becoming like him.
The man of the street talking about
the Bible being out of date and min
listers who find their way into evange-
listic pulpits, telling us that Paul
was wrong and try to take chapter
after chapter out of the Bible. But
the Bible is the only future hope OF
the church and next to the teaching
of Jesus Himself is that Of Paul.
Why? Well, as I've said before, in
those lessons Paul was with Him"
for three years.
Those who kick on Paul and the
Bible are going to die some day and
they'll die too dead to skin, but Paul
die? Mr.. Moody die? I'm writing this
on the fifth day of August, and last
evening l read that our beloved G. |.
Scofield had just died, but never! He
was dead, but he passed over out OF
death unto life Jesus said, mo
man can be My disciple except heI
take up his cross and learn of Me"
A disciple is a learner. Yes, you can
be a Christian and not learn, so it
seems, with most of the church men,
Eership. Faith is the first step, the
other four are the result-one after
the other: Following, fellowship,
friendship, fruitfulness. BY and
through this you become an apostle
and then the real trouble begins.
A man who used to be a drunkard
was converted and took to the Bible
AS the Bible truths took hold of him
he began to call Christians to ac.
count for their short comings. He
even told his pastor he didn't believe
half he preached. He stirred things
up so in the church that he was
turned out. That's what happened to
Paul and there was only one way to
silence him, to take off his head,
which they did.
They asked Gideon Ousley, when he
heard the call to preach: Gideon do
you know the disease? And do you
know the remedy He replied: 81
said yes Lord, the disease is sin and
the remedy is faith in the surren-
der to the Lord Jesus Christ" That
will do Gideon, go preach. A certain
evangelist seeking to arrange for a
meeting at Terre Haute said, III not
make anybody mad Can you
imagine Paul making such a promise.
Paul like his master didn't teach
natural law in the spiritual world,
but spiritual law in the natural
world" AS we read the Word of GOD
and see how the Kingdom and the
church grew, we ask: Why? Why be-
cause there were disciples and they
grew A Jap describing a heather
said: you see a heather is a man
with no Bible in his heart and no
hope in his soul" Now let me ask,
do you have to go to the dark land to
find them? l fear they are found in
our modern church membership more
often than we think and that is where
| Iu6 COLuSS OuS lao
said, at was easier to find a God in
Athens than mantle city was full
of affairs Do you get it. God has
many things for us to live by, but
only He to live for.
| You see things are not so different |
now than in Pauls time, but the
preacher and the preaching. Ignor-
ance without salvation always leads to
idolatry. All such will truly give an
account to God and the decision will
be irreversible-fro it there will be
no appeal The certainty of the day
of final reckoning is appalling to the
oppressor; the licentious tremble; the
proud, the covetous, the lovers of
pleasure more than of God dread to
contemplate it, for it will be reve-
lation of the wrath of God to them be-
cause of ungodliness. Only through |
repentance toward God and faith to-
ward our Lord Jesus Christ can that
wrath be turned away. To the faithful
believer in Christ, the Judgment con-
veys no alarm, he is accepted of God
through his Savior and he is an heir
of eternal life in two worlds. That
is the way Paul preached and it left
no place for the Goddess outside OF
Christ and they were rejecting Him.
The saddest part of the false worship
in Paul's day was that it was intro
duced and carried on by learned men
of that time. Let me ask again, isn't
it even so now except from the Bible
standpoint? John Wesley said, where
the real gospel was preached some
were sure to get happy and others
get mad. Paul had both every where
he went Martin Luther said, II feel
as if Christ died yesterday" It's the
work of the Holy Spirit to make
Christ's death mean as much to us as
to the disciples who knelt at the foot
of His cross, wept at His tomb, and
rejoiced on His resurrection morning.
The supreme thought in the mind
of Paul was, Jesus Christ and Him
crucified." The consciousness of this |
truth transformed his whole life.
Around the empty cross and grave
lessons of the sacrifice of His risen,