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