W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest

calculated to derail and sidetrack you. When you, thus robed and ready, stand watching and waiting the
appearing of our glorious Lord coming in the clouds to consummate the long anticipated rapture of His
expectant spouse, then, responsive to the archangel's trump, through the faith by which Enoch was translated
that he should not taste death even so the saints of the latter days will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air
and to thus be forever with Him. This is the glorious transfiguration Gospel, when the same heavenly dynamite
that gave us the Sinai conviction when a sinner, a sky blue regeneration when a brokenhearted penitent, a
triumphant sanctification when we sought the second great work of grace, will also transform these mortal
bodies in the twinkling of an eye, eliminating all ponderous matter, till they will not weigh anything and
consequently, spontaneously responsive to the interior impulses of the soul, will rise with shouts of victory to
meet the Lord in the air.
N. B. This dynamite (Rom. 1:16) is the Gospel. It is God's own definition. Without it you may hear the Word
like sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, but, utterly destitute of the Gospel, you will never be saved. You will
see from this Scripture that you receive this Gospel not by works, but by faith alone, as it is the dynamite of God
only to those who believe. If you have not received it, mark it down that there is a deficiency in your faith. In all
probability the deficiency is in the department of repentance, which is absolutely necessary to put you on
believing-ground, in order that you may be justified, sanctified, and glorified by faith. Thus alone will you
receive these three great and indispensable works of grace.
Oh, what a grand open door did the blessed Lord give me in those debates. Both contestants had equal time
which the umpire diligently kept, securing to each one every minute due him. He had a right to do as he pleased
with his time. I had no trouble to answer all of their Water doctrines in one-half of my allotted time. Then I had
the other half to preach Holy Ghost religion like lightning to the multitude, when God wonderfully used this
truth. During a debate of eight days of four hours each, we could pour out on them floods of the precious truth
which alone can save a lost world. As the days passed by, conviction descended from God and settled down on
unsaved people like a nightmare. There we had multitudes of Campbellites as well as sinners of other churches
who so much needed the Gospel, but who, through the manipulations of their preachers, had been kept away
from Holy Ghost meetings, which their preachers had denounced and ridiculed, arousing their prejudices against
them in order to make sure of holding them.
In the providence of God, I had two debates of eight days each with Elder J. B. Briney, a classical scholar and a
great orator.
As uniformly I only needed half of my time to answer their water arguments, I had the other half to preach the
power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. We get this wonderful salvation only through faith.
When you resort to other devices, you are sidetracked by Satan every time, and trying to get it by works, which
the Scriptures condemn from beginning to end. Rest assured, legalism is Satan's greased plank over which he
slides multiplied millions into Hell.
Whenever any person is shoving any kind of work as a condition of justification, regeneration, or sanctification
you, you may know he is sidetracking you into legalism, which is the sleekest plank to Hell. You say, “I have the
faith, but not the experience.” I know you are mistaken. If you had the faith, you would have the experience,
because Jesus says: “As your faith is, so be it unto you.” Matt.
9:29. He makes faith the necessary line of the grace He gives you, and you so find it throughout the Bible,
without a solitary exception.
In debating with Elder Briney, I used my extra time to show up the grand spiritual truths of the Bible along the
line of experimental salvation, assuring the people that they might take all of those water doctrines and do their
best on the line of legal obedience and they would certainly be lost forever. We obey the law because we are
saved. If we do it in order to get saved we will be forever lost, because, in so doing, we ignore the perfect work
of Christ, which we can only receive by faith.
If we resort to our own works, in that way we vitiate the faith which alone can receive and appropriate the
salvation of Christ.
While I was exposing that awful Campbellite legalism, he called me to order. The law of forensic discussion,