OBEDIENCE AND THE FORMER LUSTS

"As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance." -- 1 Peter 1: 14.

     Peter was with the Master in the holy mount and beheld Him when the fashion of His countenance was changed and His raiment became as white as snow. What an impression this scene made on the susceptible heart of Peter! Henceforth his life must be fashioned after the life of his divine Ideal. He would be Christlike.

     He suggested building tabernacles and taking up his abode in the mount, but God showed him a better way, and sent him out to preach the transfigured life to a lost world. The shining raiment of the mount were no more of an inspiration to the bewildered disciple than were the hungry faces of the multitudes at Pentecost. He beheld the visions of God on the desolate hilltop, but now he catches a vision of God's transforming power, entering, renewing, regenerating, sanctifying the hearts and lives of lost men. If the former vision is glorious the latter vision exceeds in glory.

     Standing up in the midst of the wondering throng, this once fearful but now renewed disciple proclaimed to those who would forbear as well as those who would hear that the Man whom they had crucified with wicked hands was both Lord and Christ, the one whom David had foreseen, the hope of the ancients, the joy of the Church.

     The sight of this transfigured disciple proclaiming a crucified but now risen Christ pricked the multitudes to the heart, and so set them to longing for conformity to the same Image that they cried, "Men and brethren, What shall we do? "

     In the passage before us the writer exhorts us to flee from those things which were the cause of our undoing, with each clause sinking deeper into the cause of our perverseness; then suddenly turning away from this vision of man's uncleanness, he catches, in the next verse, the full vision of God's holiness, and man's possibilities in attaining to that holiness.

     But what a vision of man's wretchedness, of my wickedness, is comprised in these words! No matter how disagreeable the task, let us look, for a few moments, into the hole of the pit from whence we were digged, and then thank God for a Deliverer.

     Ignorance. How little the natural man knows of God! He can behold the glorious sun shining down from the heights of heaven, and never catch a glimpse of the divine majesty that placed it there. Neither forests or waving fields, gentle breezes or refreshing rains, summer's gladness or winter's snows, plenty or famine, preach any sermons to his darkened mind. Divine providences, gentle or severe, are of little worth to him. He can tell the nature and properties of plants and minerals, knows the haunts and attributes of wild animals, can reason wisely of the forces of nature and their inherent powers, but cannot see the God whose handiwork these things are.

     These "natural" men can see the beauties of Shakespeare and Milton; analyze with learned niceness the works of Dickens or Kipling; they can digest volumes of mathematics, science, of literature, but can see nothing in the Word of God, the Book of books.

     Oh, brethren, let us teach men to love the Word of God. Let us throw aside our wise sayings, let us stop trying to modernize the sacred desk, and let us make this our one aim, to enlighten men's minds concerning the mightiest theme of eternity, and save their souls. I know some will not listen to the voice of those who would charm them with the old, old story, but if we do our duty their blood is off our skirts.

     Corrupt Affections. Not only are men's minds perverse, but their affections are evil. It seems as though one glance at the great mass of humanity would convince any right minded an of this fact. Why do men love pleasures more than God? Why must appeals be made to men's appetites or love of fun to eke out a miserable pittance for the work of God? Why are the circus, the theater, the parks and movies over-full and the house of God lying waste? If men's affections are not perverse why will they compass sea and land, undergo any hardships or self-denials to obtain riches, and why will they spend these riches so lavishly for their own pleasure or profit, and give to the cause of God with grudging hand, or not give at all?

     See that fine looking, well-kept young man entering yonder grog shop. He stays but a short time until he comes out reeling, simpering, falling in his own vomit. Shameful degradation has taken possession of his glory. Why does he delight in the thing that thus causes his downfall?

     If one could but go with the Christian missionary into the depths of Africa, of India, of China, or even of London or New York, and behold the wretchedness and debauchery, the uncleanness and crime, he would carry away a vivid remembrance of the depths to which "the former lusts" would carry a man unhindered by the preventing grace of God, or the restraining power of law or society.

     Perverted Will. If the unregenerate man is left free to "fashion himself , "his ruin is accomplished. Led on by the perversion of his own heart and the ignorance of his mind his will is forced to go wrong.

     This is where parents so often make a sad mistake, and, oh, how often they say, "I see it now, but it is too late." Children of tender years are left to choose their own amusements and companions. Vile thoughts are thrust into their minds by evil associates and the downward journey is begun. In due time they turn away from the church, they forsake the family altar, they do not kneel at their bedsides, they forget the Bible. Their wills, uncontrolled by proper parental government, are fashioning them. Finally, willful, headstrong, perverse, with the bits in their teeth, they repudiate their parents' religion, they refuse to obey, and declare they can and will take care of themselves. Out into the dark they go, away from God, from home, from heaven, to stumble on the dark mountains of sin, to fall and rise no more. A deceived heart, encouraged by a perverted will and vile affections, has turned them aside.

     Is this your son or daughter? Are the reins held with loving firmness that the will of that child may be taught to fashion itself after God's pattern?

     But now we come to the end of this ugly picture. Thank God for grace that can change all this I And from disobedient and gainsaying men refashion us into obedient, humble children. A'Kempis prays, "Set me free from evil passions, and heal my heart from all inordinate affections: that being inwardly cured and thoroughly cleansed, I may be made fit to love, courageous to suffer, steady to persevere."

     Obedience. "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." Obedience, divinely inspired, is not a spiritless, slavish abnegation of self, so forcibly illustrated in Roman Catholic monasticism, but a sprightly, joyous purpose to do God's will, knowing that the following of that will is to one's own best good and eternal gain, as well as the greatest glory to God, our greatest benefactor.

     Obedience is a self-forgetful grace. Self-abasement, in the Spirit, places the soul in line with the requirements of God and on the plane of our highest good. The vainglorious vaunting of self, so common with the world, is inconsistent with godliness and is another proof of the utter blindness of the unregenerate heart; but that elimination of self, called in Christian phraseology "humility," is a grace of the highest worth and greatest benefit, but is seldom seen.

     If twelve legions of angels stood ready to obey the Man of Calvary, even to the extent of delivering Him from His tormentors, why should I, a humble man, a worm of the dust, consider it beneath my dignity to run quickly at His word to do the most menial service or the hardest tasks

     The spirit of obedience settles all questions that may arise concerning duty. This form of obedience is not slavery, it is the joyous bound of childhood conquered by love.

     But you say, "If this is true, where is the cross?" To which we would answer, Are not heavy burdens carried gladly for the one you love?

     They are heavy, to be sure, they weary the shoulders, they may cause the tears to flow, but would you for all this throw them down? Would you say, "Wife, I am sorry indeed that I am forced to bear such burdens for you and the little ones?

     Not if there is any manhood left in you. You look over the feelings of pain, and truthfully say, "I bear my burdens gladly for the ones I love." Likewise the heart of the Christian says:

     "The old rugged cross, how I love it

     Its burdens, reproaches and shame;

     And naught else on earth do I covet

     But to bear it in Jesus' name."

     An obedience that cannot bear the test of disappointments, of burdens, of heartaches or of crosses is not genuine obedience. A child that runs with as great zeal to do the unpleasant things as the pleasant is an obedient child. A Christian who has learned to obey in trial the same as in joy is made of martyr stuff. He is patient in tribulation and in everything gives thanks.