Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
From a sermon by Preacher Clark, in 1972.
From Gary’s Reel 5, CD 14, Track 1
While preaching about tithing one day, Preacher Clark said, “You’re not going to pay your way into glory. You’re not going [into glory] without paying, but you’re not going to go there because you pay.”
In his parable of the four kinds of soil, Jesus said that there are some foolish believers among his people who know how to fit in among the saints, what to say and how to act so as to appear to be faithful and devoted to God. These poor people (May we never be among them!) have too much fear of God to walk away from the faith but too much love of the world to be entirely committed in their souls to Jesus. They cannot, for one example, quit bringing God His tithes, but neither can they rejoice in heart for the opportunity to bring them. They are, as James described some saints in his day, “double-minded” (Jas. 1:8). Jesus called such a mind “evil” (Mt. 6:22-23).
This is the spiritual condition referred to by Preacher Clark that Sunday afternoon. He was warning the few saints gathered in that farmhouse not to fall into the snare of thinking that by going through the motions, they were right with God. It is easy to judge ourselves by the impression we make on others, but always remember this: true holiness is a condition of the heart, not a matter of proper procedure or form.