the transforming power. No matter what change was
wrought in you at conversion, you cannot properly call yourselves fully
sanctified until the transformation is complete; that is, until you are
delivered from the works or fruit of the flesh, and produce the fruit
of the Spirit, and by your fruits you shall be known. Profession of
Holiness without appropriate fruit is no good. That would be just like
the tree to which the Saviour turned on one occasion when He found
nothing but leaves.
Let me put the matter very simply, but very definitely. Here is a man,
we will suppose, who says, 'I am saved'. That is good. I like to hear
men who are able to stand up and say, 'I am saved'. But if in that
man's dealings with those around him he tells lies--black ones or white
ones--well, then it is obvious that the man still needs Salvation.
Here is another who stands up and says, 'I have a clean heart'. That is
a testimony in which I glory. But if you see that man's bodily
appetites master him, or see him fall into uncleanness of speech or of
act, you know very well what even those who want to be charitable will
say, 'Either that man fails to understand the meaning of the words he
uses, or his profession of Holiness is a false one'.
Another person says, 'I love God with all my heart'--or as many do say,
'There is nothing between my soul and God'. But if you see the same
person running after those things which he knows God is against,
however charitable you may feel, you cannot help judging by what he
does rather than by what he says.
One may stand up and speak about being sanctified; but if his actions
indicate in some form or another that he is jealous, or ill-tempered,
or selfish, everybody will say, 'No matter what that person may say
about himself, testimony or no testimony, profession or no profession,
he still needs the blessing of Full Salvation!'
Let me, by an illustration or two, help you to see what I mean--the
fruits of the sanctified heart.
A university professor was afflicted with an ungovernable temper. One
day he went to the house of a relative with a view to adjusting some
property matters in dispute. Now, the man to whom he went not only made
unjust claims, but put forth these claims in a way to provoke his
Christian relative to anger. He did it on purpose; he was determined to
show that this man's religion made him no different from the people
round about him. As a consequence, high words arose, and the pr
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