Luther Blackmon (A Biographical Sketch)
Luther Blackmon was born March 24, 1907 at Bald Prairie in Robertson County, Texas. His parents were members of the church and taught him the truth at an early age. He obeyed the gospel when young but afterward fell away and for some years remained out of duty.
In 1926 he moved to Houston, Texas where he eventually, through the persuasion of some of his friends, started attending church and was restored. This was under the preaching of Flavil Colley who was instrumental in encouraging Bro. Blackmon to preach.
For the past 15 years he has preached continually. His labors have been chiefly in Texas but he has held meetings in a number of other states. From October 1941 to December 1943 he lived and preached in the Verde Valley of northern Arizona. During the most of his preaching life he has lived in Houston. The first local work he did was with the 26th and North Shepherd Drive congregation in that city. The last two years he spent in Houston was with the Norhill church where Roy E. Cogdill preached. In 1946 Brother Blackmon and Brother Cogdill both moved to Lufkin where they now live.
When Brother Caskey and Brother Campbell first mentioned to me about preaching in this lectureship on this theme, I thought it was a little unusual, but it seems that the interest in the subject vindicates their judgment and their decision to have someone speak on it. I appreciate the presence of all of you and especially those who have come from a distance. I am glad of the opportunity to speak at Vickery Boulevard. My association with the Christians of Fort Worth has always been pleasant and this fine audience leaves little to be desired for this occasion, as far as my part in it is concerned. The theme of this lesson, like those that have preceded it, sounds rather personal. But I would like for you to think of the principles of truth involved rather than the person. Apply these truths to your own life. Why should anyone come out of the world and turn to Christ? It is my purpose to discuss the subject tonight under three headings: 1. What is the world? 2. What is the Christian’s relationship to the world? 3. Why I chose Christ instead of the world.
The World Defined
Jesus said in Matt. 16:24, “…If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” In reading the New Testament you cannot but be impressed with the fact that the world and whatever the world stands for is generally used in antithesis to the kingdom of heaven. But, even so, there is a sense in which this is not true. Jesus said of his disciples, “…I have chosen you out of the world.” (John 15:19). But he said in his prayer to his Father, “And now I am no more in the world but these are in the world.” (John 17:11). In the world but not of the world is the idea. We, as Christians, are citizens of a heavenly kingdom, but we cannot escape the fact that we live in a material, physical world in which we do some things and sustain some relationships that are not directly a part of our Christian life and duties, nor are they of the dominion of Satan. Sitting in a cafe one day eating lunch, I was talking with a friend about playing golf. A lady listening in on the conversation asked me if I played golf. I answered that I tried to play the game sometimes. She was almost horrified. “Don’t you think it is wrong for a Christian to play golf?” she asked. I admitted that I didn’t think it was wrong and asked her why she thought so. She said, “It is of the world, and we are not to partake of the world.” This is typical of the attitude of many. They entertain the idea that everything that the Lord allows or approves is in the church and that everything else belongs to the devil.
Civil Governments Not of the Devil
I think it was some such notion as this that gave birth to the idea that all earthly governments belong to the devil. Some sincere brethren believe that. I was reading just recently Brother David Lipscomb’s comment on Romans 13. He believed that all earthly governments are headed by the devil. Brother Lipscomb was one of our great pioneer preachers, and, undoubtedly, a scholar of no mean ability. The writings of the pioneers have been of inestimable worth to me in the study of the Bible, among which writings is Brother Lipscomb’s work; but I am under no obligation, morally or spiritually, to believe anything any of them taught just because they were great men. I do not believe that God ordained government for the good of his people and then turned it over to the devil. Brother Lipscomb argued that if man had obeyed God’s law, civil government would never have been—would not have been needed—that human governments were needed because man would not obey God’s government. Well, if man had never disobeyed God, a lot of other things would never have been; the church for an example. The law of Moses was given be- cause of sin, Paul said in Gal. 3, and although it was a theocracy, it was, nevertheless, civil law, in part—six of the ten commandments dealing with man’s relationship to man. But one would hardly say, as Brother Lipscomb said of earthly governments, that the law of Moses was an “instrument of wrath, ordained for the children of wrath.”
Some say that we cannot logically be citizens of two kingdoms at the same time; therefore, we are not citizens of any earthly government—that “our citizenship is in heaven” and we are simply sojourners here, that we sustain a relationship to this government similiar to a foreigner who comes here to make his home but never becomes naturalized. He pays taxes for which he receives the protection of the government, the benefits of the schools, etc., submits to the laws, but has no part in making or executing them. But Paul claimed his Roman citizenship as protection against the scourging he was about to receive. (Acts 22:25). If not, what did he mean by “one who is a Roman?” He let the centurion think he was a Roman anyway. Being a citizen of an earthly government does not align one with the world as we are talking about the world tonight.
Bible Use of Word “World”
The Bible refers to the physical universe as the “world.” “He was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not.” (John 1:10). Again, “God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.” “Worlds” mean physical universe. The human family is referred to as the “world.” “…sin entered into the world.” (Rom. 5:12). “God so loved the world…” (John 3:16). But the sense in which we are speaking of the world in our lesson tonight is that spiritual dominion over which Satan actually has control. Satan does have a kingdom. It is a spiritual affair, antagonistic to everything for which the Lord and his kingdom stand. Paul said in Eph. 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” The devil is called the “Prince of this world.” (John 16:11; 14:30; 12:31). In II Cor. 4:4, he is called the “god of this world.” Christians are in the physical universe, of course, and are of the race of mankind; but we are not of, and cannot take part in, the affairs of the world as they relate to that spiritual dominion over which Satan is head. This brings us to:
The Christian’s Relationship to the World
The Christian’s relationship to the world is both positive and negative. On the positive side he is “the light of the world,” the “salt of the earth,” and “letters known and read of all men.” God’s plan for saving the world includes human agency. “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” “The manifold wisdom of God” (the gospel) is to be made known through the church. (I Cor. 1:18; Eph. 3:10). The Lord doesn’t have any other medium through which to preach the gospel, except the church; and just to the extent that the church of the Lord carries out her part of the divine program, just to that extent will the scheme of redemption accomplish that for which it was designed. My obligation to the world then is the same as was that of my Savior, to save the world. To the extent that I fail, He fails. I speak reverently. He will not save the world in a miraculous burst of divine power; only by the gospel. The gospel will not be preached without the church; only by the church. The church will not function without personal efforts of people like you and me. Do you believe that? Do you act as if you believe it?
On the negative side of the ledger we must “keep ourselves unspotted from the world.” “Friendship with the world is enmity with God. Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” (James 4:4). Some members of the church have a hard time finding the line between the church and the world, and still a harder time trying to stay on the right side of it. The trouble (whether they will admit it or not) is that they want to see how far they can go without going too far; how bad they can be without being too bad; how much they can get by with. Such people aren’t really interested in going to heaven; they are interested only in staying out of hell. They would be willing to sell out their interest in the glory-world pretty cheap, if they could figure out some way to keep out of the other place. Such people usually turn out like Demas, of whom Paul said, “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.” They are more concerned about what they have been “separated from” than what they have been “separated into.” John said, “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.” But who is the man who loves the world? John doesn’t leave us in doubt on this point. “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” (I John 2:15-17). This sums it up. There is not a thing belonging to the world that does not classify under one of these three.
“The Lust of the Flesh”
“The lust of the flesh” simply means the uncontrolled indulgence in the satisfying of our physical appetites. Every appetite that is natural to man is right, and God has provided for its legitimate satisfaction. Hunger, thirst, the sex desire, all have been provided for in God’s wisdom and love, and as long as we remain within the divinely appointed limitations to find satisfaction for the flesh no wrong is committed. But surrounded by temptations, it is easy for us to let these appetites to lead us into forbidden paths. While we are on the subject of fleshly appetites, I would like for some Baptist, Presbyterian, or just anybody who believes the doctrine of hereditary depravity (if anybody does) to tell me what appetite, desire, or impulse a man is born with that is wrong, in and of itself. James said, “Lust when it has conceived bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.” You have heard people say, “You might just as well do a wrong as to want to do it.” That is not so. “Lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin.” Let us illustrate what we are talking about here. Suppose a drunkard is converted to the Lord. He turns his back upon sin, the world and the devil. And that’s what repentance is—making up your mind to quit doing wrong, whether a Christian or a sinner. Lot of folks in the church need to repent! They visit their good-for-nothing kinfolks on Sunday, or let their kinfolks visit them, and keep them from coming to church, then perhaps ask the Lord to forgive them, when they know they will do it again when they feel like it, and come back next Sunday, sit on the front seat and sing, “Oh, How I Love Jesus!” Such is not repentance. Make up your mind that you won’t do that thing any more. That’s repentance. A man is a drunkard. He hears the gospel. He repents of his sins, makes up his mind that he’ll never take another drink.
But you know conversion doesn’t change a person physically. He gets just as hungry after he becomes a Christian as he did before. He is just as tall, or just as short, as he was before. His physical impulses, his desires, remain exactly the same If he wanted to drink liquor before he was converted, he’ll want it afterward. The difference between the converted man and the unconverted man is that the unconverted man is under the control of his flesh. His flesh has the ascendancy and controls the inner man. The converted man is quite the opposite. The inner man controls the outer man. This drunkard is converted. He becomes a Christian. One day he is walking down the street, looks in the liquor store and the old desire seizes him. He wants a drink just as much as he ever did before. But then the thought comes back to him, “I am a Christian now. I said I wouldn’t and I won’t” He turns and walks away. I tell you, that man hasn’t committed any sin. The desire was there but he overcame that desire, walked away, and won a victory over the devil; and it will be easier for him the next time. This old idea that “you just well say it as think it” is not so. James said, “Lust when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin.” The sin comes when the lust conceives. Suppose the man, when he is tempted, loses the fight. His flesh is stronger. He decides to take the drink. He starts in the door with his mind made up, and sees his wife coming down the street. He turns around and walks out, goes on and doesn’t take the drink. As far as the sin is concerned, he might as well have taken it, because the lust conceived. He made up his mind; he gave over to the devil. Lust of the flesh is not necessarily wrong, but giving over to it and allowing our physical desires to lead us beyond restraints which God has laid down, breaking through the divine restrictions and prohibitions which inspiration has placed around the child of God, that’s when the sin takes place.
“Lust of the Eye”
“The lust of the eye,” the desire for earthly, material things. It isn’t wrong to make money. I don’t know of a passage of scripture in all the Bible that condemns a man’s making money. I know several that condemn him for the misuse of it. And the manner in which some people get it is wrong. But making legitimate money is not wrong. I remember in Mark 10th chapter, Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” I used to hear, when I was a boy, preachers try to soften that; and I don’t know why either, for there were not any rich folks in our congregation, where I was brought up. I don’t know why a preacher would want to soften that, by saying that there was a hole in the wall of Jerusalem where a camel had to get down on his knees and go under. That was called the needle’s eye and that’s what Jesus meant—that a rich man had to get down on his knees. That’s an explanation but that isn’t what Jesus meant. It doesn’t say the needle’s eye, but the “eye of a needle.” But Brother Preacher, that would be impossible. That’s the point. That’s it exactly! It is impossible for the kind of rich man here described to enter the kingdom of heaven. The twenty-third verse explains it. “How hardly shall they that trust in riches!” The man that makes getting money his aim and his goal and then sits down and holds that money while suffering and dying humanity all around him cries out for help. That’s the man that is wrong and not the man that makes money legitimately. Any man who makes money for the sake of making money, for the sake of saying, “I can write a check in six figures,” or “I want to leave my children a lot of money,” has the wrong attitude and the wrong idea. He loves his money and Jesus said, “You cannot serve (love) God and mammon.” Paul said in I Tim. 6:10, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” And he said, “They that would be rich fall into temptation and a snare.” Not just the fellow that is rich, but “they that would be rich.” Notice the expression: “THEY THAT WOULD BE RICH.” That spells greed and vanity.
Some men want to make a lot of money that they might help build church houses and preach the gospel. I know a fellow who is an elder in the church and he makes a lot of money. He gives it very liberally. He said to me recently: “I believe that the Lord is going to let me live a long time and use me in his kingdom. I have thought about cashing in all of my assets, and I could live comfortably the rest of my life; but I’d destroy my earning power, and I have quite an earning power like it is. I don’t want money; that doesn’t concern me; and I don’t care whether I leave my children very much or not. If I can educate them and give them an even start in life, that’s all I want. But I want to spend my money to preach the gospel and to save men and women who are lost.” God give us more rich men like that. I don’t know of a passage of scripture in the Bible that condemns a man for making money, but the Bible is full of passages that condemn a man for not spending that money.
I want to notice a passage over in the fifth chapter of James: “Woe unto you rich men. Weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your gold and silver is cankered.” Cankered! How do things get cankered? “And your garments are moth-eaten.” How do garments get moth eaten? Mine never do, for I have mine on, and moths don’t get in them when you have them on. Garments get moth-eaten in the closet and money get cankered when it is not being used. Inspiration didn’t put those words in just to fill up space. “Your gold and silver is cankered.” Having it doesn’t hurt anything; it’s cankered. It is the rust that’s hanging on it that is going to send your soul to hell. “Your garments are moth-eaten.” You don’t wear your Christianity. You hang it up in the closet and live for the devil. “And the rust of them shall be witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire.”
Some things I can’t figure out; I just can’t. I once knew an old man who had a lot of money; and you know, that old fellow wouldn’t eat enough. He didn’t eat very much and I honestly believe that it was that he might save the money. And he’d tell a lie for a nickel anytime. If he could gain a nickel by telling a lie, he would do it. Of course, he didn’t call it a lie. He was like the little boy that had the lemonade. He was selling his lemonade for five cents a glass; the other boy down the street was getting three cents for his. Someone asked him how he could get two cents a glass more for his lemonade, and he said, “You see, there didn’t any cat fall in mine while I was making it.” And that’s all he said. Pretty soon the other little boy came around and asked him what he meant telling folks that a cat fell in his lemonade, and he said, “I didn’t tell anybody a cat fell in your lemonade. I just said one didn’t fall in mine.” But he lied just the same, didn’t he? The old man had more money than he needed, or ever would need, and yet, he’d lie for a nickel. And nearly any rich man will do that, just nearly any of them. They may not lie for a nickel but they will lie for a lot. They serve mammon and that is why there are such a few rich men in the kingdom of God. And that’s why some who are don’t do anything for the Lord. They trust in their riches. It is a hard thing for a man to have money without trusting in his money.
“The Pride of Life”
“The pride of life;” that means desire for fame and power—the thing that has sent so many people on the wrong road. Some time ago I had occasion to be in New York. Many of you remember when I was here last July (in a meeting at South Summit) I had some trouble with my throat, and had to go, or did go, up to Philadelphia for treatment. I had always wanted to see Broadway at night. Well, I did. As I stood there and looked up and down the great white way, the theatrical center of the world, where somebody said, “there are a million lights and a broken heart for every light,” I thought of all the young people who had offered their souls upon the altar of ambition. Sacrifice themselves, their virtue, and their very souls for a career. And there are a lot of little girls in this country tonight, and maybe some in Fort Worth, who would give everything they have on this earth, virtue and all, if they could get a contract in Hollywood or become the toast of Broadway—“see my name in lights.” Other men are crazy for power. Mussolini, Tojo, Napoleon, Alexander, all are examples. “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” What if a man gain all the pleasure, satisfy every impulse and every physical desire of his flesh; suppose that a man has all the money that he wants—nobody ever did I guess—but suppose a man did. Suppose that he could satisfy every vain impulse and every particle of vanity that he has; suppose that he was the ruler over the universe, that all earthly governments were under his rule and dominion; suppose that he was so notorious and so popular that everybody knew and used his name in every nation on the earth; if he died without Christ and lost his soul, Jesus said he’d be a failure. Put all that on one side of the scale and put one human soul on the other, and Jesus says that this one human soul weighs more than all that, everything the world has to offer. Then no wonder Jesus said, “What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” I don’t know how many of you have ever come face to face with the thought that perhaps this is the time I must die; this is it. This is my call to go out into the great and boundless beyond. A lot of people never think about the hereafter until they are faced with that reality. Let me tell you something, my friends. It is just as real as if it had already happened to you; it is just as real as if it were going to happen tonight. If I had it in my power (and wanted to do it) to tell you that this is the last hour that you are going to spend on this earth, that at 9:00 o’clock your life would be snuffed out, if you believed me, there isn’t a person in this audience that wouldn’t come down that aisle in tears and give his heart to the Lord Jesus Christ and his life to his service—if he had the opportunity. But you keep putting it off. Why? Because you have some more of the world that you want to enjoy.
Trading a Soul for the World
I was preaching in a little East Texas town, and I preached on “Hell” one night. A lady who had been coming to the meeting said, “If you don’t quit preaching like that, I won’t come to hear you, because at night I can’t go to sleep.” I said, “Well, why don’t you do something about it? You know how to fix that.” And she said, “Yes, I know, but, preacher, I just love the world too much.” She was honest about it. And till this good day she is still in the world. She still belongs to the devil, and I guess always will, because she isn’t willing to give up the world. But Jesus said, “What shall it profit a man; what is the profit?” In the first place, no one ever gained the world, but in the second place, what if he could? He’d be a fool to trade his soul for the world.
Trading a Soul for a Husband
Some young ladies have traded their souls for a husband. They fall in love with some boy who doesn’t care a thing on earth about the church. And when folks get in love, you know, that entitles them to trample everything that God ever said under their feet—Christianity, father, mother, morals and everything else. “I’m in love and I’ll marry him, no matter what. Oh, I’ll convert him. I am going to do different to what the rest of them did.” It is her business if she wants to trade her soul for a husband, but it is a bad trade. It is a bad deal.
But let us notice another thing about the vainglory of life. A great many people have too much pride with regard to their religious connections. Some people remain in denominations because the church of Christ is unpopular and small. Some people who are convinced of the truth have too much pride to give up their big church, give up their big party denominational connections and come into the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, even when they know it is right. I had a friend who gained quite some reputation as a student in the school he attended. He won a scholarship in Europe and studied in Switzerland. Some of the denominational preachers in that town approached him and tried to get him to leave the church. They said, “You are too big a man to be going down there to that little place. Why don’t you come up with us?” But they happened to hit a fellow, in that case, whose pride couldn’t be appealed to in that way. A good many people will not give up the important and popular side in order to walk with Christ. “What would a man be profited if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”
One Qualified on the “World”
I think Solomon was, perhaps, as well qualified to speak on the instability of the world, both by inspiration and experience, as most anybody about whom I have ever read. And if you will turn to Ecclesiastes and read it, you cannot but be impressed with the deep melancholy note Solomon sounded there. He begins it by saying: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” But let’s take a look at Solomon’s life. Solomon was given wisdom, you know, and a lot of folk think that is the summum bonum of all that could be desired. As I was driving a young preacher to his appointment, he told me his plans for the future. He was going to school till he had a Ph. D. I thought about the old gentleman who said, “My boy has his B. A. and his M. A. both, but his P. A. still supports him!” A young preacher asked one of our old pioneer preachers (I won’t tell you his name) what he thought about his going to school. He already had his Master’s degree and was getting his Ph. D. He replied, “It just depends on what you intend to do, son. If you intend to preach the gospel, you already know too much.” It’s fine to have an education if you have sense enough to use it, but it’s just like riches. When you make it the aim and the end and the goal of life, of course, it becomes a hindrance. Oratory and eloquence. worldly wisdom and college degrees are not to be confused with the gospel of Christ. Solomon had wisdom. He was the wisest man who ever lived upon the earth, but that wisdom did not bring him satisfaction.
Not only did he have wisdom, but he came as near, I suppose, as anyone ever did, to satisfying every physical desire that he had. He gave himself over to the satisfaction of his desires until he became a dissipated wretch, just like everybody else that does that will do.
Not only did he satisfy all of his physical desires and impulses to the fullest, but Solomon was a very wealthy man. The coffers of Israel were overflowing during Solomon’s reign, and enjoyed the wealthiest wealth of the world. Not only did he enjoy the satisfaction of his physical desires and the wealth, but he was famous. Why, the Queen of Sheba came to see him and when she left, she said, “The half hasn’t been told.” “Solomon, I have heard about you, but I hadn’t really heard all the story.” And when Solomon reached the end of the journey, had time to reflect upon his folly, and the curtain was ready to drop upon his little earthly drama, he said, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” And in the recapitulation of the last sermon, in the last verses of Ecclesiastes, he said, “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” In the first chapter of Ecclesiastes he talks about the instability of life. He compares it to a tread-mill. Why, he said, “Generations come and go, but the world goes on. The sun rises in the morning, then it goes down and returns to the place from which it rises. All the rivers run into the sea, and yet the sea is not full; from the place from whence they come, thither they return again.” Life is a tread-mill, and when I live my little span, bid good-bye to earthly friends and relationships and go the way of all the earth, I’ll be like other men, forgotten except for the good or evil that I have done. Solomon, in spite of his wisdom, learned too late the purpose of life. He had been blinded by the glitter of the world.
Moses and the World
But there was another fellow, a man by the name of Moses. The Bible says, “By faith Moses, when he had come into years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer afflictions with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” (Heb. 11).
Yes, there is pleasure in sin, but the pleasure that goes with sin is only temporary, lasts only as long as the act which provides the pleasure is being performed. Moses “esteemed the reproaches of Christ greater riches than Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.” He left the land of Egypt in spite of the fact that he was heir to the throne and to all the wealth that Egypt had. It was his; he was reared as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. But he knew enough about God and this world to know that all this earth can afford is but a bubble, and as Solomon said “vanity.” And so, when the crucial test came, Moses turned his back upon that Egyptian throne, upon the power that he could have wielded as the king of Egypt, and upon all the wealth, the joy and the pleasure that Egypt and the world had to give him, and cast his lot with a group of emancipated slaves. He wandered back and forth in the great and terrible wilderness until God called him from his labor and put him to rest. Moses could have gone down in history as a great Egyptian king, but he preferred to be a servant of his God. That was Moses.
Paul and the World
Take last of all, the apostle Paul. He was reared in the city of Tarsus and educated in the city of Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliel. In Philippians the fourth chapter, he said, “If any man think he hath whereof to glory in the flesh, I more. Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law a Pharisee, concerning zeal persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is of the law blameless. But those things which are gain to me, I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I do count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse that I may win Christ.” Paul was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, a doctor of the law. He had a prominent position among his people. He had letters of authority in his pocket to bind and bring back to the city of Jerusalem those whom he found worshipping the name of Christ, because he thought with all sincerity that he ought to stamp out and abolish that hateful and despised sect of Christians. But from the time that the light shone on him on the Damascus road, and he fell down and said, “Lord, what wilt thou have me do?” From that time, I say, “until his old grey head rolled off the chop block in glorious martyrdom,” not one single time did he waver or express any doubts about the ultimate finish of it all. I suppose Paul is my ideal of all men of the Bible; to me he stands out because of his unwavering loyalty to the things he believed to be right. He gave up his home; he gave up his family; he gave up his kinfolk; he turned his back upon his religion, venerated for its antiquity, and given to Moses amid the terrible scenes of Sinai, and cast his lot with the despised Christians. Enemies of the truth persecuted him from place to place until, finally, under the rule of old Nero, he was put to death and his spirit went back to God who had given it. That was Paul for you! He gave up the world but he gained Christ. He said, “The things that were gain to me, I counted loss for Christ, and do count them but refuse that I may win Christ.” Coming to the personal part of the subject,
Why I Left the World for Christ
I shall be as brief as I can. My primary reason for leaving the world, of course, was that I might be saved. I knew enough about the Bible, even then, to know that there could be no compromise between the two; that if I would win Christ, I must give up the world.
In the second place, I discovered that there is no peace, I discovered that there is no peace of mind in the service of Satan. A few minutes ago I referred to some men as examples of this very thing. Alexander the Great thought that happiness consisted in power. He conquered the world and then cried because there were no more worlds to conquer, according to the poet. He died young and disillusioned, “having conquered the world but unable to conquer his own lusts.” Such a life is never happy. It doesn’t have the ingredients for happiness. If Solomon with wisdom, wealth, power and everything that the world has to offer, could find no lasting happiness in these things, surely I could not hope to fare so well.
In the last place, I left the world because, at best, my days upon this earth are few. If the world could provide all that it takes to make one happy, our “three score and ten” would soon run out. What then?
Plea to Leave the World
My friends, let me suggest to you, until you come to the place in your thinking and in your attitude where you are willing to say with Paul, “I count the things of the world but refuse; I count all the wealth of the world but a thing to be used in the service of my God: I count all the pride and fame that I might gain as a man of the world a thing to be despised, if I may win Christ and die a triumphant and victorious death when this earthly life is done.” I say, until you can come to the place in life where you can earnestly and conscientiously say, “Lord, use me; I am through with the world,” you may just as well stay in the world because the Lord can’t use you. There are a lot of folk in the church, and I suspect in Fort Worth, whose names are on the church roll, who have never actually given up the world. I plead with you tonight that you turn from the world, and from the pleasure that the world offers you. The world can offer no lasting peace. The world can offer no satisfaction that is permanent in its nature. The world can offer you none of the blessings that are in Christ, none of the comforts that you have as a Christian when you come to die. Let me tell you something, friends; if everything else in the world I ever did fails, if I go down in the memory of my friends as a failure and as a complete disappointment to all who knew me, as far as this world is concerned; if I can look up in the hour of death with an eye of faith and say with Paul, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith,” I won’t care a great deal about what the world affords and how much of it I have missed. Until we can come to that place where we can give up everything that the world has to offer and cling to Christ, no matter what the sacrifices may be, we are not fit to serve him as his children. I beg you tonight to turn from the world, to turn to Christ who is able to save you to the uttermost, to come believing in the Son of God, to answer the call to the highest duty and the greatest obligation that any man or woman ever accepted; come in the name of him who loved you and died for you, come believing and come turning from your sins, come confessing the faith that you have in your heart, and be baptized for the remission of those sins, and God will wash them away, blot them out and remember them no more and “give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified,” if you are faithful unto the end of the journey.