"First, Cleanse the Inside of the Cup"<\/p>\n
"Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also" (Mat_23:26).<\/p>\n
The keynote before us is Regeneration versus Reformation.<\/p>\n
1. Too many seem to be satisfied with mere outward appearance, they want only to "appear righteous to men."<\/p>\n
Reformation deals with the outside; it never gets at the core of the trouble. Reformation spends itself in beautifying graves, and embellishing sepulchers, but always leaves the dead men’s bones on the inside.<\/p>\n
And what good is this whitewashing? How much of money and how much of labor has been wasted in a work that will not last down here, and cannot live in eternity.<\/p>\n
Suppose a man does sign the pledge and does turn over a new leaf, what advantage is there in that? Sin lies deep-rooted in the nature, and cannot be "signed" away. All those engaged in mere reform work, should remember that Christ called those who did such a work, and who left undone the deeper, inner work, "blind Pharisees."<\/p>\n
2. The first work God demands is regeneration. Christ said: "Ye must be born again."<\/p>\n
The hardest task any one ever attempted, is to live a Christian life, as exemplified in the life of Christ, without having a Christian’s heart. This is utterly impossible.<\/p>\n
Illustration: A young woman once told me that she wanted to become a Christian, but she knew that she could never give up the world. Her whole life had, for years, been given to dancing and cards and worldly amusements; all of her associates were of that class; she simply felt she could not live apart from them.<\/p>\n
We told her that, first of all, she should let Christ come in, and receive Him, by faith, as her Saviour. Christ would give her new hopes and new aspirations; He would change her very desires. As for her companions, when she received Christ and was truly saved, they would separate her from their company.<\/p>\n
After some such conversation, she did positively accept Christ as her Saviour and Lord. A year later she bore testimony to the fact that the "former things," friends and all, had all passed away. She had not cared for them; they had not cared for her.<\/p>\n
When we have Christ IN the heart, and He cleanses the fountain, the outflow takes care of itself. Alas, for those whose "religion" is put on and worn as a garment. A religion of forms and ceremonies is no more than a hollow mockery. It is "Christ in us, the hope of glory," and not Christ around us, that is vital Christianity.<\/p>\n
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
"First, Cleanse the Inside of the Cup" "Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also" (Mat_23:26). The keynote before us is Regeneration versus Reformation. 1. Too many seem to be satisfied with mere outward appearance, they want only to "appear righteous … Continue reading “0385. "First, Cleanse the Inside of the Cup"”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}