The founder of Bob Jones University, Dr. Bob Jones Sr., was one of God's great warriors for the faith. The message you will hear now, recorded during his earthly ministry, illustrates the firm conviction that whatever the Bible says is so. My friends, I bring you now the 47th message in a series of 52 on what does the Bible say about how we should live in this world. Remember, the Bible is the last court of appeals. We cannot go beyond the Bible. We go to the Bible to know what to do. Now, it's perfectly clear what we have to do. But we have to watch out about some things now. You're not to be a literalist. Now, wait a minute. The things in the Bible are literal. Jesus literally came to this world. Jesus Christ literally died on a cross. Jesus Christ literally rose from the dead. Jesus Christ literally went back to heaven. Jesus Christ is literally coming again. Now, I don't want to be misunderstood about this literal business. But, you know, I'm talking more now about the letter of the law. A great many people get all mixed up sometimes about this letter of the law religion. Now, the Pharisees had that kind of religion. They had the letter of the law religion without the spirit of Christianity. Now, if you go to the Bible, you can get the letter of the law, but you get more than that. You get the spirit of the law. Now, remember that. You know, a letter of the law runs along the idea of do and live. The spirit of the law is do, of course, is what you should do, but live the life you should live and be what you ought to be. You can't save yourself, but you're saved by faith in Jesus Christ. Now, there's a verse in the Bible that means so much to me. It's just a wonderful verse. And it says that we have what we ask of God because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. Now, it's one thing to keep the letter of the law, obey the commandments, and then go ahead and live up to the spirit of the law. Let me illustrate. The Bible says, Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not steal. All right? Now, that's literal. I know what that means. I'm not to go over here and break into a man's house and take some money. I'm not to slip my hand in his pocket and steal some money. I should live up to that, see. But I shouldn't get the idea because I live up to that, see, that I'm a Christian. Christianity goes beyond that. Now, that's an important thing. I shouldn't steal. I shouldn't kill. But there's something beyond that. I should have a spirit that'll keep me from stealing, see. It doesn't mean I wouldn't sometimes be tempted. But I have something in me that pulls me back, see? As a matter of fact, I don't think a real born-again Christian living in fellowship with God is tempted to steal very much. A man has to be a thief to steal. He has to be a liar to lie. He has to be a murderer to kill. He has to be a crook to be crooked in this world, see? What we are, we'll do sooner or later if we go ahead. Now, we need a real honest-to-goodness spirit of Christianity. Now, I've known some people that didn't know much Bible. Oh, they knew the Ten Commandments, and they knew some of the Bible, but they didn't know much Bible. But they had this spirit in them, and they had something there that was beautiful and wonderful. Maybe they were not very intelligent Christians. Maybe they weren't as smart as some other people. Or maybe they hadn't had the opportunity to know the Bible like some other people knew the Bible. They were let of the law on everything that was clear. But they had a spirit in them, you see. Now, wait a minute. The spirit never leads anybody to violate the law of God. Now, God called me to preach. I've been an evangelist forever, since I was a boy, started at the age of 13. Now, God never leads anybody, never led me as an evangelist, to violate the clear teaching of Scripture about holding evangelists to campaign. Back before World War I, it went on Lake Indiana, as I've told you, I think, before, in a recent address, We passed resolutions, Dr. B. Wolfe and I, at Winona Lake, Indiana, when we had hundreds of evangelists in association, that not any of us would conduct a revival if we knew a sponsor of that revival, did not believe in the doctrines of Christ, such as the inspiration of the Bible, the virgin birth, and the incarnation, and the blood atonement, and the body of resurrection, and so forth. Now, we took that stand because the Bible said if we went ahead and didn't give Christian recognition to that kind of fellow, which we'd have to do if we let him sponsor us, if we didn't give Christian recognition to him, then I would be a partaker of his evil deed. Now, the Spirit of the Lord would say, I do not want to be a partaker of his evil deed. Now, God did not tell me in that Scripture, thou shalt not go along. But he said that I must not go along unless I want to be a partaker of his evil deed. And now God Almighty gave me that kind of instruction about do a thing. Now the spirit of the law follows the instruction that God gives, not just the commandments of God, not just thou shalt not steal, not just thou shalt not kill. The spirit of the law follows the ethics of the law and the philosophy of the law and how to do the thing and so forth and so on. Now, the Bible says that what we ask of Him, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things as pleasing in His sight. It's a wonderful thing to be a Christian. It's a wonderful thing to be able to pray, to go to God in prayer, talk to the Lord, how marvelous that is, to talk to Him and to pray and to fellowship with Him. I needn't come up to God and have some money in my pocket I stole and say, Lord, I want you to bless me and help me. I'm a thief. No, no, no. God says you go clean up that thing, see. Go out there and do it, see. That's what he said. If you bring a gift to your altar and find your brother has altar against you, leave the gift at the altar and go fix it with your brother. That is, your brother has something against you. I couldn't run around over the world and hunt up everybody in the world that might have something against me. But if I mistreated my brother and had it all against me, I hadn't treated him right, what should I do? I'd get up and leave my gift there and go and fix it up with my brother. Now, that's not so much a command as it's the spirit of the law, see? I am to go. Now, he said if my brother trespasses against me, rebuke him. That's a command. I'm commanded to rebuke him, and then I'm commanded to forgive him if he repents. Now, here it's a different situation with a little different shade. I come here to the Lord and say, now, Lord, I brought my gift to the altar. Yes, but I remember something. I didn't treat that fellow right. Now, God said, I'm not going to send you to hell for that. It doesn't say that, but that's the idea. But I can't accept your gift here. You've got to go and get that thing fixed up now with your brother. And then come back. You're not fit to offer me a gift when you mistreat your brother. Now, that's the spirit of the law. The spirit of the law is I leave a gift there, Go away and fix it up and say, I'm sorry, and what can I do to make it right? And then I come back, see? Now, the spirit of Christianity never operates contrary to the clear letter of the law. Remember that, man. It goes further than the letter of the law. The spirit of Christianity goes beyond that. All right, now, I do the things that are pleasing in the sight of God. I must please God. God has a will, as I've said many a time, about the kind of hat a fellow wears. God has a will about how a fellow dresses. Now, the principle of the Spirit is in the Bible. God says that women should be modest and all that. And if a woman's dressed immodestly, she's violated the clear teaching of the Word of God. But if she wonders if she should do a thing and does it, she does wrong to do it, see? If she wonders if she should wear that dress, and if it's a modest dress, then she shouldn't wear it. She should give God the benefit of the doubt in all the things she does. We're not saved by keeping the law. But if we are saved, we will endeavor to live like we ought to live. And when God definitely forbids something, I say, well, I won't do it. If God tells me to do something, I say, all right. He says, let your light shine. All right, let it shine. He just confessed me before a man? All right. How many times have you been in the place that somebody ought to say a good word for Jesus and you could have said it, but you sat there and didn't say it. Now you should have said a good word for the Lord. And sometimes I've had to drive myself to speak up in certain circles and tell them about Jesus Christ when the issue came up and the opportunity was there to do this business for God and wake up and speak up and so on and so on. All right. Now the letter of the law is let your light shine. That's the command. All right, what else? Well, pray without ceasing. That's the spirit of the Lord. Now, you also have the letter of the Lord. That's command. But pray without ceasing means the attitude, the spirit of prayer has to be dominant in all the things of your life. When I was a boy, I used to get out in the country and pray in the evening and ask the Lord to help us get on praying rounds and pleading times. those old saints to do it. Well, that's where we ought to stay all the time. The spirit of Christianity is to be able anytime, anywhere, to say a word for Jesus, be at ease about it, and pray without ceasing. Say, did you ever try to be nice when you weren't right? Maybe as a little child you'd done something you shouldn't have done, and you'd try to be nice and put on. I've seen some people put on so much, you know, this sort of cover-up process. You've seen them, haven't you? Well, that's not the spirit of the law. The spirit of the law is, I want nothing between God and me. It's not a question of whether God said, don't do so and so. The question is, I wonder if it would please God if I did that. Say, would that please God? Now, notice for just a minute. I know it's wrong to steal because I don't have to ask. That's as clear as day. But sometimes along the road of life, something comes up where I say, well, I wonder if that would please the Lord. I can't find anything exactly in the Bible that says, don't do what you're doing. I just wonder if that would please the Lord. And so I just wonder so many times in the world, if we just stop and ask, does this please the Lord? Would the Lord be pleased about this? And we're Christians who should live to please Him. That's our business. And the mother says, go uptown, son. And mail this letter now, and hurry now. He goes up there and mails the letter. He stops back, he finds some boys playing marbles, and he said, Mother didn't say for me to not play marbles, I'm going to stop here and play a game. Now that's not right. The child should say, I wonder if it would please Mother if I stopped you. I better not. She said, hurry back. So I better go on back home, you see. An obedient child doesn't just do exactly to the letter of the law what he's told to do. He does what he thinks will please the Father. And so a Christian should live in this world according to the Bible, and God will reward you for it. He said we receive of Him what we ask because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. Now, my friends, it's a wonderful thing to be a Christian. It's a wonderful thing to have the privilege of prayer. Yet most of us drive ourselves to prayer. May God help us to pray, and to take time to pray, and in all the problems of life, to ask the question, Would this please the Lord? Our Father, help us to be faithful and give us strength for the tasks that we are carrying, and the work we have to do, and keep us true to Thee, and faithful in all things, for Jesus' sake. Amen. By the fulfill of God and the Prince and the King, Give heart and soul and mind and strength to serve the King of Kings. Rise up, rise up, O men of God, this kingdom's here rejoiced. We give the name of Christ the Lord, and then of thine abroad. If thine art cause and right, Ever his feet have trod As brothers of the Son of Man Rise up, O men of God! Rise up, O men of God! You've heard Dr. Bob Jones, Sr., internationally known evangelist and founder of Bob Jones University, who during his earthly ministry was one of God's great warriors for the faith.