Post by Jesse Morrell on Jan 31, 2006 15:28:32 GMT -5
“Nothing short of absolute obedience will satisfy God. The keeping of all His commandments is the demonstration of obedience that God requires. But can we keep all of God’s commandments? Can a man receive moral ability that helps him to obey every one of them? Certainly he can. By the same token, man can, through prayer, obtain ability to do this very thing…Does God give commandments that men cannot obey? Is he so arbitrary, so severe, so unloving, that He issues commandments that cannot be obeyed? The answer is that, in all of Scripture, not a single instance is recorded of God having commanded any man to do a thing that was beyond his power. Is God so unjust and so inconsiderate to require a man something that he is unable to do? Certainly not! To infer is to slander the character of God.” E.M. Bounds in "Prayer and Obedience"
Here are some quotes from Leonard Ravenhill on perfection from, "Be Holy In All Conversation" 2:15min-5:24min
Ravenhill said, "I think one of our weaknesses in our modern presentation of the truth on Christian living is that we are more afraid of holiness then we are of sinfulness. The preachers have given us so many alabys for our weakness and our carnal nature and heaven knows what. But when we talk about holiness we get rather nervous and we want to back off. Supposing you change the word from holy to healthy, which is really its main meaning. As He which is called you is healthy, morally and spiritually, so you should be holy, I should be holy. Ah..healthy spiritually and morally.
(continued) "There are alternate words for this word holiness. You could say sanctification is the same thing. Or perfection. Well, that word scares us more then ever. You know we hear people say, "Well I'm not perfect" Well, don't be so proud of it. It shows up, don't boast about it. I mean, why aren't you perfect? You say, "you expect me to be perfect?" Sure I do. I think Jesus did, didn't He in the Sermon on the Mount? He talked about perfection there for us.
(continued) "Well, we could pull out of our text for our own convenience, "wait a minute, wait a minute didn't the Apostle Paul say 'not that I have already attained or were already perfect' That's what he said. Well, you say, "if he said he wasn't perfect do you expect me to be perfect?" Yes I do. Because you quoted about perfection out of context. If you go two verses past that verse, in that verse he says 'not as though I had already attained or were already perfect" two verses further one he says "let us who are perfect". Now what do you do with it?
(continued) "He's talking about two different things. In the first case, "not as though I had already attained" he's talking there of the resurrection body. I don't have one, do you? I'll be glad when I get it because I have a body that gives me a lot of problems due to some serious accident I had a few years ago. And I'll be delighted when I get, as it were, the last installment of my salvation.
(continued) "salvation is present, salvation is progressive, salvation will be finalized, because one day we are going to have a body like unto His glorious body. And we are told, "be ye perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect" Now again, we can't have angelic perfection, we can't have intellectual perfection. There are many perfections we can't have. Adam like perfection. We can have spiritual perfection because God demands that we love Him with a perfect heart and with a perfect mind. And we can be made perfect in love the Word of God says."
Leonard Ravenhill in, "Be Holy In All Conversation" from 2:15min-5:24min
"What need is there of attacking sin with so much eagerness since, even in the Name of the Lord, I can not destroy it? And why should I resist it with so much watchfulness, since my eternal life and salvation are absolutely secured, and the most poisonous cup of iniquity can not destroy me, though I should drink of it every day for months or years? If ye fondly think that you can neither go backward into a sinful, cursed Egypt, nor yet go forward into a sinless, holy Canaan, how natural will it be for you to say, "Soul, take thy ease," and rest awhile in this wilderness on the pillow of self-imputed perfection!" John Fletcher
Many great men taught holiness like John Wesley, John Fletcher, E.M. Bounds, William & Catherine Booth, Charles Finney, A. B. Simpson, Duncan Campbell, Leonard Ravenhill. And any one of us would do good to follow in their biblical footsteps.
Here are some quotes from Leonard Ravenhill on perfection from, "Be Holy In All Conversation" 2:15min-5:24min
Ravenhill said, "I think one of our weaknesses in our modern presentation of the truth on Christian living is that we are more afraid of holiness then we are of sinfulness. The preachers have given us so many alabys for our weakness and our carnal nature and heaven knows what. But when we talk about holiness we get rather nervous and we want to back off. Supposing you change the word from holy to healthy, which is really its main meaning. As He which is called you is healthy, morally and spiritually, so you should be holy, I should be holy. Ah..healthy spiritually and morally.
(continued) "There are alternate words for this word holiness. You could say sanctification is the same thing. Or perfection. Well, that word scares us more then ever. You know we hear people say, "Well I'm not perfect" Well, don't be so proud of it. It shows up, don't boast about it. I mean, why aren't you perfect? You say, "you expect me to be perfect?" Sure I do. I think Jesus did, didn't He in the Sermon on the Mount? He talked about perfection there for us.
(continued) "Well, we could pull out of our text for our own convenience, "wait a minute, wait a minute didn't the Apostle Paul say 'not that I have already attained or were already perfect' That's what he said. Well, you say, "if he said he wasn't perfect do you expect me to be perfect?" Yes I do. Because you quoted about perfection out of context. If you go two verses past that verse, in that verse he says 'not as though I had already attained or were already perfect" two verses further one he says "let us who are perfect". Now what do you do with it?
(continued) "He's talking about two different things. In the first case, "not as though I had already attained" he's talking there of the resurrection body. I don't have one, do you? I'll be glad when I get it because I have a body that gives me a lot of problems due to some serious accident I had a few years ago. And I'll be delighted when I get, as it were, the last installment of my salvation.
(continued) "salvation is present, salvation is progressive, salvation will be finalized, because one day we are going to have a body like unto His glorious body. And we are told, "be ye perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect" Now again, we can't have angelic perfection, we can't have intellectual perfection. There are many perfections we can't have. Adam like perfection. We can have spiritual perfection because God demands that we love Him with a perfect heart and with a perfect mind. And we can be made perfect in love the Word of God says."
Leonard Ravenhill in, "Be Holy In All Conversation" from 2:15min-5:24min
"What need is there of attacking sin with so much eagerness since, even in the Name of the Lord, I can not destroy it? And why should I resist it with so much watchfulness, since my eternal life and salvation are absolutely secured, and the most poisonous cup of iniquity can not destroy me, though I should drink of it every day for months or years? If ye fondly think that you can neither go backward into a sinful, cursed Egypt, nor yet go forward into a sinless, holy Canaan, how natural will it be for you to say, "Soul, take thy ease," and rest awhile in this wilderness on the pillow of self-imputed perfection!" John Fletcher
Many great men taught holiness like John Wesley, John Fletcher, E.M. Bounds, William & Catherine Booth, Charles Finney, A. B. Simpson, Duncan Campbell, Leonard Ravenhill. And any one of us would do good to follow in their biblical footsteps.