Ye Ought to Be Teachers (Including Examples of Spiritual and Unspiritual Meetings)

Selected Verses:

Hebrews 5:12. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

Opening:

"For the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and ye have need of milk, and not of meat." And that made me think, "Oh, if God could only speak to us this morning." Tell me, wouldn't that be wonderful if God could call every one of us by name, and say, "I've got something to say to you. I'm going to talk to you"? Well, listen, He does. "God hath spoken unto us." That ought to be very clear: God hath, long ago; He has called us through the Gospel. "God hath... spoken unto us by His Son." "God hath spoken unto us."

What is the result? Well, the result is that today we're teachers--"teachers of babes." We're "instructed in the law" of God. We are shining lights "in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom we shine; holding forth the word of life." The result is that we "show forth the praises of Him, who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light."

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Selected Quotes:

speaker icon "Whereas for the time ye ought to be teachers." Well, we are teachers. My goodness, we can sit down and chew everybody's ear off, and talk by the hour about how people ought to live. I've heard that again and again. We can tell everybody else where to get off at. But to let our "light so shine before men," "to let our light shine." Light is light. "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." And "if we walk in the light, as He is in the light," there will be no darkness in us. And if mine "eye is single,"--and I keep looking at Jesus, and keep my mind "stayed upon Jehovah,"--my "whole body will be full of light."

Oh, listen, it is a tremendously wonderful blessing to have God speak to us by His Son: not like He spoke to the prophets, or to the old saints by Moses, and gave them the law. But oh, thank God! He spoke to us "by the Lord, and confirmed His word unto us by them that heard Him... with signs and wonders and gifts of the Holy Ghost."

"What is man that Thou art mindful of him?" Has He ever stopped at your door? Has He ever knocked at the door of your heart? Has He ever spoken to your heart? Have you heard His voice? Have you heard Him plaintively ask to let Him come into your heart? Have you heard Him say to you that you're "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked," and that you don't need to remain like that? But if you'll "hear His voice," and "open the door," He will come in. He'll give you "gold tried in the fire." He'll give you reality--"beauty for ashes, the oil of joy... for the spirit of heaviness." He will substitute Himself for your self.

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"God hath spoken to us," and He has a very definite message, a very definite holy call. His call is for us to enter into that rest which Joshua was not able to lead his people into. It took the heavenly Joshua to come down from heaven to lay down His life that we might have His life. Oh, that's the thing God wants us to hear: that He's provided a Savior for us who saves "to the uttermost."

But it tells us in the fifth chapter, "He's become the Author of eternal salvation to them that obey Him." "Whither the forerunner is for us entered..." Where did you go Jesus? He says, "I go to prepare a place for you. I want you to be where I am, and I'll come again. I will not leave you orphans. I'll come again." Has He come to you? Has He come to you? Have you accepted Him? If you accept Him, He will take over, and He will reign.

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And today He speaks again, "If ye will hear His voice..." Oh, there are so many voices today calling the people of God, so many siren voices that pretend to be the voices of God, that pretend and purport to be the voice of Jehovah. And here is the word eternal, which is "quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword."

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"We who have believed..." Believed what? Why, we believe into [the] presence of Jesus, and "we enter into rest" by ceasing from our own works, and waiting upon the Lord, and waiting upon His works, and waiting upon Him to do His works. And how does He do it? He unsheathes His sword, He speaks to our hearts, He takes these wonderful words of the New Testament and He quickens them to our soul. And presently, this word which was formerly just the Bible, becomes the great God before whose eyes nothing is hidden, whose "eyes are like flames of fire," and who searches the depths of our hearts.

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speaker icon He says, "I offer you gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich, and eyesalve that thou mayest see, and white garments that the shame of thy nakedness be not discovered. And if you don't, I'll spew thee out of My mouth. Oh, if you were cold, I could deal with you, and if you were hot, I could deal with you, but you're lukewarm."

My God, I know that You've been speaking to us, but what good does it do? What good does it do? We're "rich," we're "increased with goods," we "have need of nothing..." Oh, yes, we have lots of needs, but God, we don't have need of Your stuff.

Illustrations:

The hardships of drills during World War I and the preparation of officers: "That's how they tried to train officers. And God is training officers." (at 6:14)

Developed over a period of about five minutes, an illustration of a spiritual meeting at a Bible school. Previously, at this "prominent" and "fashionable" institution, "the manifestations of the Spirit had been ruled out." "The people heard from heaven. The students heard from heaven. Now, they'd studied the Bible. They'd studied theology, and exegesis, and homiletics, and all those things. But that night, that simple message spoken in the power of the Holy Ghost presented to them a 'living word,' 'the sword of the Spirit...' For two hours...there was nothing heard but confession and sobs--sobs from theologians, from Bible students." (at 11:14)

An illustration of carelessness and frivolity at a large Pentecostal convention. "It never satisfied the deepest longing of my soul... The only place where my heart could be satisfied was in the prayer room... but how few people you found in the prayer room--listen, mostly colored folks, despised colored people, but precious in the sight of the Lord. Oh, to get down among these colored folks and hear them pray with groanings that cannot be uttered... that first love was burning there. I said, 'God, why is it not burning in the convention?' ...All you find is big-shots making big speeches." (from 17:31)

References:

Like a River Glorious, a hymn by Frances R. Havergal, 1876:

Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest

Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.