p. 1 | BE YE DOERS

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 21, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 47.

BE YE DOERS.

GOD asks of the sinner more than the sinner can do; but He is not thereby unjust.

THERE is no power in sinful man to do God's Word. In the language of the apostle Paul, we are "without strength." Again he tells us: "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not." "What I would, that do I not." And every other soul has had the same experience.

THE reason?—Man is "carnal, sold under sin." He is a slave to do the will of the flesh. Sin is incarnate; and the mind is the mind of the flesh. One stronger must come in, in order that the strong man of sin may be destroyed.

THE "Stronger One" is Christ Jesus. He took our flesh, our condition, that He might meet sin as we meet it. He Himself said, "I can of Mine own self do nothing." But by living, momentary, constant faith He grasped the throne of the Infinite, appropriated by faith the Spirit of God, emptied Himself, and God, by His life, power, and wisdom, filled Him with "all the fulness of God."

GOD became incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth, united by Christ's own glorious renunciation of self and simple trust. And Jesus is our Example. He came to this earth and conquered sin in the flesh, that we in Him might conquer. "He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh," but conquered all sin, and was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection. It was all accomplished through Him and in Him. He was the Doer of the Word for all.

FOR him who believes, Christ's righteous obedience covers all the sin of the past, and the power of His life, His resurrection life, fills the present. He comes to us in that glorious life in every providence we meet, in the beneficent gifts of nature, in His Holy Word. His life fills it; nay, more, the Word is itself life; for did He not say, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life"?

HE, therefore, commands nothing which can not be obeyed. He does not command that we may endeavor and fail; but the command is itself an "enabling act" for the doing. When He says, "Be ye," there is power in the word to make us what He desires us to be, it we will let the word work out its life in us. When He says, "Be ye doers of the Word,"

there is power there for the doing. To the evil-disposed it is an impossible command, and his fleshly mind rebels against it; but to the heart which will yield and accept, it is a blessed promise, cast in "precept mold." It is cold law to the unbeliever; it is the blessed Gospel of power to the believer. God's law

was terror to unbelieving Israel; it was God's blessed glory to Moses, of which he desired a greater revelation. That law is hated by the carnal heart; "O how love I Thy law!" is the expression of the heart of faith. "Be ye doers," then, in the gladness of the Gospel of Christ. You will find a life unfolding in sunshine, even as the lily from the cool stream.

THE Gospel does not stop short of doing. True faith "worketh by love." "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." The belief which stops short of this is that which demons share and tremble. We may count as ours apostolic succession, or the Nicene creed, or membership in some great church, or a blessing some time ago, or a happy feeling now, as excuses for not doing the plain Word of God. We may make one or all excuses avail for us, but they will not avail with God. "Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." "God is not

mocked." No act of man will change His immutable Word. No money of man will buy the Court of Last Resort. No influence of man will pervert the Judge. Why then be deceived? Why deceive ourselves? Why come up to the judgment-bar of God and say, "Lord, Lord," and hear Him say, "I know you not;" "why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say"? Why not, dear soul, why not look upon all God's precepts as blessed, Gospel-enabling

acts, precious promises, full of the life and blessing and power of their Giver. Then, indeed, will you be glad “doers of the Word,” and will hear from His lips, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”