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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About the Tempter (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 097. The Jesus-Passion in Control
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The Jesus-Passion in Control
The tenth is an Old Testament standard. But we are living in the New Testament floodlight. The New Testament standard, in effect, is this: that everything we have is to be controlled by the one purpose of telling all the world of our Lord Jesus. That is the passion of our Lord's heart, and is to be the passion of ours, too, as we follow Him. Under this light we are to retain what our needs call for, that being left wholly to our individual judgment, guided by the Holy Spirit, to decide, and all the rest is to be controlled in its use by this passion of our Lord's heart.
There are thousands of Christians who conscientiously give the tenth, and some even a larger fraction than this, and then keep all the rest for themselves. Many of them live saintly lives, are devoted in their Christian service, but live in luxury, and keep the greater part of the year's income for themselves. Yet the millions are without a saving knowledge of the Saviour. And the one passionate desire of our Lord's heart remains unsatisfied, and His return is being delayed. These people follow this course conscientiously. So they have been taught to do. They are on a higher plane of giving than the majority of Christians. They have not gone past their leaders to the Word itself for its simple fuller teaching.
The common teaching about giving a tenth has loosened out vast sums, and, it has been so understood and applied, that it has held back far vaster sums that the Lord meant should be used in making Him known, and in bringing Him back. Giving a tenth has practically been taken to mean giving only a tenth, and that is utterly opposed to the whole New Testament teaching and spirit.
It seems quite a bit startling to say so, but without doubt the tempter's purpose to keep the millions in darkness has been furthered by the teaching that in giving a tenth we are fully doing what our Lord expects of us. It has been one of his subtlest modern disguises in withholding the Gospel of Christ from the vast majority of the human race.
These suggestions give a little inkling into the meaning hidden within that phrase, "An angel of light." The tempter has great power of cunning in using religious phraseology. He has fine skill in making use of much of the commonly accepted Christian teaching in furthering his own plans.