PHOTOGRAPH OF A REAL CHRISTIAN.
By Pastor A. Sims
Taken from the Saints’ Guide Book.
[Pastor A. Sims, in the Wesleyan Herald.] If you are a true Bible Christian, such as you may and should be, then you have present peace with God, all your sins are forgiven, and your name is registered in the Lamb’s book of life. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Rom. 5:1. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Rom. 8:1. You have the witness of the Spirit that you are now a child of God and an heir of glory. “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.” Rom. 8:16, 17. You are saved from the love of the world. You are not eagerly seeking its wealth, and striving to lay up for yourself treasures upon earth; you do not desire the honors and praise of men, neither do you follow their customs and fashions; for you have learned and proved in your own experience that there is something better. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” 1 John 2:15. “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” 1 John 5:4. “And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Rom. 12:2. You either keep out or come out of all secret, oath-bound societies. “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” 2 Cor. 6:14–18. See also Eph. 5, 11–15 and Jas. 5:12. You give freely and liberally of your means to relieve the poor and advance the truth. Isa. 32:8; Eph. 4:28. You love the Word of God and delight in its study; you have great peace, and do not stumble into sin. “O how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” Ps. 119:97, 103, 148, 165. “When quiet in my house I sit,
Thy Book be my companion still;
My joy Thy sayings to repeat,
Talk o’er the records of Thy will,
And search the Oracles Divine,
Till every heart-felt word be mine.” You love the prayer-meeting, and are constant and active in your support of it as far as possible. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” Heb. 10:25. “Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another; and the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him, for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name.” Mal. 3:16. You make no attempt at outward display, either in style of living or by personal adornment with gold, precious stones, and costly array. “Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel,” etc. 1 Peter 3:3; 1 Tim. 2:9. You are saved from the bondage of depraved appetites and habits. Strong drinks, tobacco, opium, cards, rink-going, dancing, horse-racing, gambling, lying, swearing, stealing, cheating, scolding, Sabbath-breaking, fornication, adultery, pride, and all uncleanness and foolish talking and jesting do no longer bind you and bring you under their power. The ruling power of sin is broken, and your emancipated soul has victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil. There is no law out against you, but you are free, yes, “free indeed.” “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:36. “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” Gal. 5:16. You do not run in debt without knowing how or when you will be able to pay. “Provide things honest in the sight of all men.” “Owe no man anything, but to love one another.” Rom. 12:17; 13:8. You have confidence toward God, and are entirely uncondemned, either of God or of your own heart. Your own communion with Him is real; often sweet and precious beyond expression, and your prayers are most graciously heard and answered. “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” 1 John 3:22. By constantly abiding in Christ you are saved from committing all known and outward sins. In loving obedience to God’s Word, and under the gentle movings and clear enlightening of the Holy Spirit, while constantly and fully trusting in God for His promised grace, you are kept from yielding to any temptations of the adversary or the uprisings of the carnal mind. “Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not.” 1 John 3:6. You love God, and know it. You love, and are patiently waiting for, the second personal appearing of Christ, sure, if faithful unto the end, of a crown of righteousness at His coming. “Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Heb. 9:28. You know that when Christ does appear, you also will appear with Him in glory; and that then you shall see Him as He is, and be like Him forever. And having this hope, you purify yourself, even as He is pure. See 1 John 3:3. You suffer in some form, and to a greater or less degree, from the persecuting spirit of the ungodly; and are not loved, courted, and sought after by the world. “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” 2 Tim. 3:12. “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” John 15:19. You hunger and thirst after righteousness. Walking after the Spirit, you are led to see the need of an experience beyond what you now enjoy, and you are eagerly desiring and pressing on for the whole will of God to be done in your soul, and to know more and more of the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, until you comprehend it in its breadth and length and depth and height, and are filled with all the fulness of God. “Be ye holy; for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:16. “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” Heb. 12:14. Reader, are you a Bible Christian?