AN UNSINNING LIFE

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 463, 16 April 1890, Page 4

AN UNSINNING LIFE

Auckland, April 11. f The Birch-Yarley controversy on the sub- f iect of an unsinning life i 3 advancing. At a the ordinary week - night service held at the Tabernacle last evening, Pastor Birch returned to the attack. He took for his text t'no Epistle of St.John,, i chap. 3, verse 10 : “In this the childien of £ God are manifest, and the children of the >■ the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that lovoth i not his brother.” In the course of his re- * marks he said :—God defines the disposition . of His children as not sinning, and < that of the devil’s children as - sinning. The false idea that the de- * vout child of God has to be partly < Christ’s and partly Satan’s has weakened the churches and encouraged the sins of the world. Under such false teaching there is no marked difference in morals between the average churchman and the average cultured man who never enters a church. Fearing the wealthy sinners, who chiefly support them, Christian ministers as a rule do not preach that any man who continues to break God’s commandments shall be cast into hell. To remody this deplorable state of things God raised up the Methodi-ts, and more recently the Salvation Army, to preach the Scriptural truth that God not only forgives sin, but casts out from us the demon of sin, in order that we may serve the Lord with unsinning and joyful obedience all our days. The Scriptural knowledge of many devout Christians is imperfect ; the devil blinds them and inspires them to believe a lie. Paul has been brought forward as “the chief of sinners ; ” but, surely, Paul was thinking of his old life when he persecuted the Christians. Ho could not mean that he was then sinning every day against God and man, else he ought to have been turned out of the Church. Does ho not also say, “ I exorcise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward and toward men.” (Acts xxiv., 16.) If you consent to the continued indwelling of sin or the devil, you are his servant; for, as our Lord says, “Ho that committeth sin is the slavo of sin, or the devil;” and John says, “He that committeth sin is of the devil, the inventor and worker of all sin.” Id is your own voluntary act to continue a servant of sin ; and while you so act you cannot be a servant of God, and, therefore, your wages is death. If you stick to your indwelling sin, and so die, you cannot see the Lord. The precious blood can save only those who in faith stand before God to bo cleansed before Him, and also through and through from all sin. God notonly covers us with the white robe, but also cleanseth us from all sin—clean before God, not as a sham or pretence, but a reality, “ cleanseth us from all sin. Our thoughts, words, and deeds are clean. “ Unless the tree be good, its fruit cannot be good,” Matthew xiii., 33. The Apostle James also sjiows that holiness is the experience of saints. It must be your choice to serve Christ or Satan. Which shall it be? You cannot ’ serve both. “He that committeth sin is of ' the devil ’’—that is, he serves the devil or • sinful tendency, which Christ lives to cast ; out. There is no deliverance until, in child- ’ like faith, you open your door for Christ to | enter and cast out the devil with every sin- ! ful or disobedient tendency. Where He so ' enters and dwells as King, every evil in His sight is uprooted and cast out. If you 1 deny this, you make yourself a tool of Satan, resist the Holy Ghost, weaken the ’ Church, and degrade your fellow men. And the man who lower’s God’s standard 3 of unsinr.ing obedience, puts a stumbling j block in his brother’s way, and is "therefore ; neither the friend of God nor man. Surely 5 God has made it possible to serve Him j with joyful and unsinning obedience. In I this* respect my life amongst you for the 1 past five months may not be known to the ' rich and to the professdrs of thab religion 1 which preaches that its people may 3 commit sin every day. My life 1 has been lived in the sight of the l poor, the working men, and the sick 3 of Auckland. I may not have satisfied the ’ rich, bub I have visited the widow, the 3 fatherless, and the poor, and have lived a \ blameless life, and though I may not have been thirty years studying God’s Word, I have been thirty years trying todo His will. 1 The Bible says, “He that committeh sin is 3 of the devil,” and as for these of my people 3 who do not believe that —be they deacons, 1 elders, or members—l am prepared to re- ‘ ceive their resignations. Some of them j have already gone elsewhere, and if they have got a manlier Christianity preached to them they are welcome to go. So long 1 ns I remain here I will stand fast to the I 'principles which I conscientiously believe to be true.” Pastor Birch concluded P by stating that the reporters were welcome [ to make what use they pleased of his re--3 marks, provided they were published in 1 exlenso. All lie asked for was fair play. . There was no comment made by any of 5 those present on the all-important subject, j and the meeting concluded in the usual manner.