The Holiness Preacher and Legalism

The HOLINESS PREACHER
by Bill Harper.


The Holiness preacher, a Godly man,
was seen riding his circuit with Bible in hand.
He rode in sunshine and he rode in rain,
he rode when he felt good, and he rode in pain...


Often he fasted, God’s will to achieve,
striving for perfection, lest the Spirit he’d grieve.
Often his congregation numbered just a few.
He preached without compromise and he helped them pray through...


He preached against demon rum and the dance.
He spoke against painted up women and games of chance.
The Holiness preacher, a Godly man,
kept up with the times, God’s kingdom to expand...


Few people attended in fancy clothes.
They didn’t come to look at others, down their nose.
As he entered into this modern age
he preached against radio as though in a rage.


Avoid the theater also he’d say.
Avoid worldliness, walk the strait narrow way.
When moving pictures made their debut
he preached against this devil’s invention so new.


Movies corrupted our morals said he,
the things they portrayed weren’t fit for Christians to see.
During the depression he bought a tent,
in which to hold meetings, telling men to repent...


ANDREW AGAIN: The poem about “The Holiness Preacher” above
is certainly well-done. But can I just say this, my friends-
The old-time “Holiness” movement that concerned itself with
“dancing” and “bobbed hair” and ‘no makeup for women’, etc, is
NOT where I am coming from with this TV thing.


A lot of those concerns were about “outward” things – and easily
descended into legalism. I truly believe that TV is gaining access
to the “heart” of man – and that is my main concern. It slowly and
gradually fills people’s minds and lives with complete junk.


To be frank with you, I don’t care about “bobbed hair” and I have
been known to dance enthusiastically with my wife at weddings,
etc. - and also to take her out to the Cinema on occasion. Does
that make me “unholy”? Is that what we think "holiness" is about?
Is it all about these 'outward' things?


I have to confess to you - when I first read the poem about the
"Holiness preacher" the only thing that sprang to my mind was
that it was not real Holiness - but rather "Legalism" that this man
represented. And yes - this became a huge problem in the old
Holiness circles. You had to have your hair the "right" way and
your dress the "right" way and never attend movies or dances
and on and on.


The only real Holiness I am interested in preaching is Holiness of
the HEART. If our focus is on mere "outward" things then all we
will get from our preaching is a bunch of 'Legalists' who do and say
all the "right" things - but their hearts are proud and self-righteous.


I greatly fear that many "holiness" circles today have the same
legalistic tendencies. It is all about the "right" music styles and
head coverings and long dresses - and the 'Heart' is forgotten in
the rush to get all these "outward" things right. This is no Holiness
at all. God is after a pure heart. He wants the INSIDE of the cup
to be cleaned - rather than all this focus on the 'outside'.


We need to apply this Scripture - "To the pure all things are pure."
This is a place of tremendous freedom - but only if we truly have
a pure heart.


Can we please learn the difference between Holiness and Legalism,
my friends, so this generation does not repeat many of the same
errors as our 'Holiness' forefathers?

1 Peter 1:16

THE HOLINESS of GOD

-excerpts by A.W. Tozer.

“God is not now any holier than He ever was. And He never was
holier than now. He did not get His holiness from anyone nor from
anywhere. He is Himself the Holiness. He is the All-Holy, the Holy
One; He is holiness itself, beyond the power of thought to grasp or
of word to express, beyond the power of all praise.”

“Language cannot express the holy, so God resorts to association
and suggestion. He cannot say it outright because He would have
to use words for which we know no meaning. He would have to
translate it down to our unholiness. If He were to tell us how white
He is, we would understand it in terms of only dingy grey.”

“It was a common thing in olden days, when God was the center
of Human worship, to kneel at an altar and shake, tremble, weep,
and perspire in an agony of conviction. We don’t see it now because
the God we preach is not the everlasting, awful God, ‘mine Holy
One’ (Habakkuk 1:12), who is ‘of purer eyes than to behold evil,
and canst not look on iniquity’ (Habakkuk 1:13).”

“We’ve used the technical interpretation of justification by faith and
the imputed righteousness of Christ until we’ve watered down the
wine of our spirituality. God help us in this evil hour!”

“We come into the presence of God with tainted souls. We come
with our own concept of morality, having learned it from books,
from newspapers and from school. We come to God dirty – our
whitest white is dirty, our churches are dirty and our thoughts are
dirty – and we do nothing about it!”

“If we came to God dirty, but trembling and shocked and awestruck
in His presence, if we knelt at His feet and cried with Isaiah, ‘I am
undone; because I am a man of unclean lips’ (Isaiah 6:5), then I
could understand. But we skip into His awful presence. We’re
forgetting ‘holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord’
(Hebrews 12:14).”

“O God, soon every person must appear before you to give an
account for the deeds done in the body. Father, keep upon us a
sense of holiness so that we can’t sin and excuse it, but that
repentance will be as deep as our lives. This we ask in Christ’s
name. Amen.”

-A.W. Tozer.

The Importance of Prayer

I do want to pray.

I want to be able to pray for hours and hours at the feet of my Lord.  I'm realizing, that it is a difficult thing to do even with all this time in my hands.. since I'm not working right now. My spirit and flesh are constantly conflicting and so far, I've fed my flesh.  I picked up this one book by Leonard Ravenhill and started to read it.  Many parts of it brought me to my knees before my savior, realizing how much I've chosen to not give Him all me.  The more I read, the more I saw the passion in that 87 year old man: a passion to die to self, to live like Apostle Paul, to be broken so that God may use him to reach the lost.  I asked the Lord to make me a woman that will cling to the cross.

Leonard Ravenhill articulates on how essential one's prayer life is.

"No greater man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying.  The pulpit can be a shop window to display one's talents; the prayer closet allows no showing off."
I thank God there's an alternative in meeting and being used by Him.


"We have many organizers, but few agonize -rs; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere."

"Today God is bypassing men - not because they are too ignorant, but because they are too self-sufficient."

This is so true in the church today. Where are the people who will cling to cross cuz they can't even depend on themselves to get anything done?

"All decays begin in the closet; no heart thrives without much secret converse with God, and nothing will make amends for the want of it." - Berridge.


"The secret of praying is praying in secret.  A sinning man will stop praying, and a praying man will stop sinning."
This stuck out like a sore thumb. It is so true. I will stop disobeying if only I simply obeyed. I will begin to live, the moment I die.


"Someone now warns us lest we become so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly use."

I want to get to that point, to be a woman that this world is not worthy of.


"When we go to God by prayer, the devil knows we go to fetch strength against him, and therefore he opposeth us all he can." - R. Sibbes

"These priests who dope men's souls, these idolatrous "masses," these Calvary eclipsing prayers to Mary, these miserable millions cheated in life and in death by the greatest forgery Lucifer ever made - all these do not seem to stir us to tearful intercessions and godly jealousy, as identical circumstances stirred Elijah.  The enemy has come in like a flood. Is there no spirit-filled messenger of God today?"
This is not only about the Catholic Church and it's heretical teachings that have no biblical standing but every other false teaching out there that take the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and desecrate it by putting man's 2 cents.  Man's two cents implying, that Jesus' blood wasn't enough for the atonement.  When people are being cheated their lives... to false religions, shouldn't we be burning with holy indignation?



"God does not want partnership with us but ownership of us."
This is a good reminder whenever I tell myself, "I'm doing this for God" that I'm actually doing it with God since He has all of me.


"A sober church never does any good."

"Tell me in the light of the Cross, isn't it a scandal that you and I live today as we do?" - Alan Redpath

"Such a sinning, repenting "easy believeism" dishonors the blood and prostitutes the altar.  We must alter that altar, for the altar is a place to die on.  Let those who will not pay this price leave it alone!"


"How shall I feel at the judgment, if multitudes of missed opportunities pass before me in full review, and all my excuses prove to be disguises of my cowardice and pride?" - Dr. W.E. Sangster

"Then Christ was enthroned.  And before we can be clean and ready for Him to control, self-seeking, self-glory, self-interest, self-pity, self-righteousness, self-importance, self-promotion, self-satisfaction - and whatsoever else there be of self - must die."


"No man is ever fully accepted until he has, first of all, been utterly rejected."  - Author Unknown

"Men of prayer must be men of steel, for they will be assaulted by Satan even before they attempt to assault his kingdom."


What use is deeper knowledge if we have shallower hearts?  What use is greater standing with men if we have a less standing with God? What use is personal physical hygiene if we have filthiness of the mind and of the spirit?  What use is religious piety if we have soul carnality?  Why strut with physical strength if we have spiritual weakness? Of what use is worldly wealth if we have spiritual poverty?  Who can take comfort in social popularity if he is unknown in hell?  Prayer takes care of all these spiritual maladjustments."
Luke 9: 25 "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his soul?"  It'll be worth nothing.



"One crowded hour of glorious "life" - so they argue- is worth a gamble on the speculation of the theologians' so called "eternity."


"Better to die bound in body and free in spirit than free in body and bound in soul!"


"God's purpose for us is not happiness, but holiness!"

"Yet while over our heads hangs the Damoclean sword of rejection, we believers are lean, lazy, luxury loving, loveless, and lacking.  Though our merciful God will pardon our sins, purge our iniquity, and pity our ignorance, our lukewarm hearts are an abomination in His sight.  We must be hot or cold, flaming or freezing, burning out or cast out.  Lack of heat and lack of love God hates."


"This generation of preachers is responsible for this generation of sinners."


I'm not done reading the book so I will be back. It's praying time.