The Promise of the Father — R.E. Carroll

The Promise of the Father as a Scriptural Theme

Outstanding text for this Bible study this morning, but let me read to you some of the Scriptures that seem to me to weave this theme throughout the Scriptures, the promise of the Father. And I'm sure that I'll miss some that you might think are outstanding, but again, maybe you'll begin to feel like I finally learned that there was no one verse, it was just a theme through the Scriptures.

I wish that my memory was good enough to quote to you that beautiful passage from Foster about holiness and how it, oh what did he say, it sings in the Psalms and whispers in the prayers or supplicates in the prayers and shines in it from beginning to end from the Alpha to Omega.

It's just real oratory. If you want some real oratory, read that sometime and I think sometime I'll get it memorized, but I haven't yet. Let me read you some of these Scriptures that seem to me to point to this one grand theme, the promise of the Father.

I won't tell you where they're found, you can't turn to them as rapidly as I want to read them, but I believe you'll recognize them all as Scripture. The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar, it shall never go out.

Holiness, Covenant Love, and Entrance into the Promised Land

If the Lord delight in it, then he will bring us into this land and give it us, a land which floweth with milk and honey. I have begun to give, you begin to possess, that thou mayest inherit. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might.

And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. I remember how I was impressed with this when my first years in Bible school, we took Pentateuch. He brought us out from thence that he might bring us in.

That's the promise of God, deliverance from Egypt is looking forward to Canaan. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.

From the book of Joshua, I would like to read all the verses that speak of it, but I will not. But you know what follows this, behold the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan.

Then flew one of the seraphim unto me having a live coal in his hand which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar and he laid it upon my mouth. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground.

I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing on thy offspring. I will settle you after your old estates and will do better unto you than at your beginnings. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean.

From all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. That's the verse of which John Wesley said and if all doesn't mean all pray tell me what does all mean. I thought that was an interesting comment.

A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses and I will call for the corn and will increase it and lay no famine upon you.

I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication. In that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.

And the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in. Well have I read enough to convince us that the promise of the father is there one place and another.

I'd like to read a little bit more but just let me pick an extract or two from the second chapter of Joel. Be glad then ye children of Zion and rejoice in the Lord your God for he has given you the former rain moderately.

He will cause to come down for you the rain the former rain and the latter rain in his first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. Moving to the New Testament we have it becoming more central.

He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. And again we read in Mark the same thing he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. And again in Luke the same thing he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.

And behold I send the promise of my father upon you but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high. I would like to read much more but just a couple more from the gospel of John.

In the last day that great day of the feast Jesus stood and cried saying if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me as the scripture said out from him shall flow rivers of living water.

But this spake he of the spirit. I would like to read all of John 17 but I will not. But I think that it's five or more times that in that great high priestly prayer Christ prayed that his disciples might be won.

Christ's Prayer for Unity, Holiness, and the Holy Spirit

This somewhat sums up that prayer. I pray for them. Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me that they may be won as we are. That they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. That thou should keep them from the evil.

Sanctify them through thy truth that they all may be won. That they may be made perfect and won. And I've thought many a time if this prayer is answered for you and me it's going to be the most overwhelming thing that was ever known in this old universe.

That they may be with me where I am. That they may behold my glory. I can't think of a grander prayer than that. That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them. And then he breathed on them and saith unto them receive ye the Holy Ghost.

I'll not read more but I would remind you of those last days of Christ with his disciples. When he was assembled with them and told them to wait for the promise of the father. And that word wait is a very interesting word.

It has the idea of waiting around like you're expecting that something is going to happen at any moment. And I think that's a different kind of waiting than sometimes that we see. Sometimes we see idling and it's called waiting.

But that waiting that Christ commanded was wait around expecting that something is going to happen. And it did when the day of Pentecost was fully come. Perhaps what I would be trying to say this morning.

The Promise as a Greater Work of Grace

Hope you'll pray for me that the Lord will help me to do it. Is two thoughts. One what God has put in his word to give us a picture of what this promise of the father is. And another to help me and maybe you to see that it's a grander thing than oft times we have thought it was.

I wish I could quote it but I believe I can get the gist of it. In William Arthur's wonderful little book, The Tongue of Fire, he wrote something like this. He said, I've entered into these studies in an attempt to attempt to lessen the distance painfully felt to be between my own life and experience and that of the early church.

And I believe that I could say that and perhaps you could too. I would like to lessen the distance that there is between what I experience and enjoy and what those enjoyed of the early church. That's not saying that it isn't real and genuine.

But as Adam Clark said, there are stars of various magnitudes. But there are stars of the first magnitude. But in amongst those stars there's the sun of righteousness. And this promise of the father shines out even among the stars of first magnitude like the sun and its strength.

It's more grand, more wonderful than perhaps we've often recognized. Permit me to use a simple, homely little illustration that I've thought of so often times. Did you ever hear anyone testify? I hope you haven't, but I have.

I heard someone, I don't know, possibly it was Brother Schmuel, someone was illustrating it here just lately about folks getting up to testify and, you know, they're trying to wind down something like this.

I'm serving the Lord in my poor weak way and I hope you'll all pray for me that I'll hold out faithful to the end. And I always feel like saying, I don't think you will. It just, it doesn't look very good, does it?

And sometimes we've heard testimony to wholeness about the same way. Someone get up and testify and you're just about convinced that they really did get saved. They tell about it and how they got changed and the wonderful life that came.

And then just they're sitting down almost, oh, I forgot, I was going to tell you, I got sanctified too. Well, there's more to it than that. There's more to it than that. It's something that just is outstanding.

It is the promise of the Father. Would you permit me to read to you just a little bit of what some godly man of another day has said about this? And then let me try and bring some scripture pictures of this promise of the Father.

I like this. I've read it scores of times, quoted it, and enjoyed it. John Wesley made a statement, I think I have this copied verbatim. This experience implies such a large manifestation of the divine presence and love that the former in justification is as a nothing in comparison of it.

This marriage feast signifies the entrance into the highest state of union that can be between God and the soul in this life. This birthday of the spirit of love in our souls, whenever we attain it, will feast our souls with such joy and peace in God as will blot out the remembrance of everything that we called peace or joy before.

I hope that you believe that is sound. I would like to say that was my own experience. It was more overwhelming than anything I had ever known in my life. Another one of the great writers of another day said something like this.

Sanctification as an Overwhelming Experience of Divine Love

Jehovah speaks, listen, O my soul, it is the voice of command. The authority of my sovereign is in it. Let me bow before it with awe and reverence, with filial confidence and love. He who understands all my weakness and unworthiness, he who knows that I can do nothing of myself, that in him alone I have redemption, he commands me, be ye holy.

But Jehovah speaks again. Let me hear the words he utters. And will he now condemn me utterly for my helplessness? Is there no relief for this agonized heart, agonized because so sensibly impure? O my heavenly father, speak not to me in thy wrath, lest I sink to hopeless woe.

But heark, this is the voice of love, tender, holy love. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean. From all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. But let me not prematurely rejoice.

This is an ancient saying. It was addressed to those of old testament times who have long since passed away. May I claim that promise? If an ancient child of God might be cleansed, may not I? Listen, O my panting spirit.

Hear the voice of him who speak as never man spake before. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence.

I have been stirred a number of times in reading this little portion that I would like to read to you now. And again, let me say the theme that I'm on this morning is the Bible pictures of what this promise of the father is.

And a feeling that maybe we need to exalt in our thinking what God does in this wonderful experience of second crisis holiness. I was thinking this morning about a meeting I was in. There was a young girl that, I don't know whether these are the expressions one should use or not, but I'm going to use it.

She claimed that she got sanctified. And I remember I met her a few days later and I just said to her something about, you know, how is the victory? Are you sanctified? Or whatever it was I said to her.

And she says, by faith. Well, there's more to it than that. It is by faith. And I know that there's going to be differences in emotions and manifestations and all of the rest of it. But it isn't a thing so dead and dull that you have to pry it out of a person.

It's just more to it than that. There's something overwhelming. I remember the preacher that was preaching when I got sanctified. He used some expressions that I've never got over. He said it's supernatural, it's dynamic, it's overwhelming, it's wonderful.

And brethren, couldn't we say that it is that? Let's not say it's just such an ordinary thing. Let me quote you again from a man whose writings I think are just outstanding. He said, that bosom has yet to learn what is the feeling of moral sublimity, which never has been suddenly heaved with an emotion of uncontrollable adoration to God and the Lamb, an emotion which though no voice told whence it came, by its movement in the depths of the soul, further down than ordinary feelings reached, it indicates somehow that the touch of the Creator was traceable in it.

They only who have felt such unearthly joy need attempt to conceive the outburst of that burning moment. Body, soul, and spirit glowing with one celestial fire would blend and pour out their powers in a rapturous glory, be to God or blessed be the Lord God.

Modern believers, not those who never unite in simple and fervent supplication at the throne of grace, but those who meet and urge with long-repeated entreaty their request to God, can recall times which help them to imagine what must have been the peal of praise that burst from the hearts of the 120 when the baptism fell upon their souls.

Biblical Pictures and Symbols of the Father's Promise

I feel like as God has done something, he did something, and he's still doing something that's just so far beyond the ordinary, and I'm going to try to bring you a little study this morning on some of the symbols that God has used to attempt to give you and me a little bit of a picture of what this experience is.

I can't come near the preaching of Brother Buston or Brother Smule, I can't do that, but I'll try and act as a Bible teacher this morning, and bring a little study on this. But I will say this, God did something for my heart one time that has helped me to feel when I read something like this, I don't have to say to myself, I wonder what they're talking about.

But I can say to myself, I know what they're talking about. I never in my life had or ever will have. I'm positive I won't. I'll never have anything in my life like Moses had that time when he saw the bush that burned with fire and was not consumed, but I did get something in my heart that helps me to feel a kinship to it when I read about it.

I don't expect that I'm ever going to have anything like Isaiah had that time in the temple when he said, I saw the Lord, I saw the seraphim, I felt the touch of the coals of fire. I'll never have any experience like that, and neither will you.

I'm positive we won't, but there ought to be something of God's grace in our hearts when God goes deep enough in our hearts until we can say, I can sympathize with it, I like that, I wish the Lord would do it again, I'd like to see it happen.

I don't believe anyone, I don't think anyone ever since or ever will again have an experience like Paul had on the Damascus road. Before it was over, he said, I heard a voice, and the voice spoke to me, and I said, and he said, and I said, what shall I do, Lord?

I don't think we're ever going to see that again in the history of the world, but I do believe that God Almighty can do something so real in our hearts that we can say, I feel with that, I just like that, that stirs my, am I anywhere near right in it?

I just, between old age and what else comes with it, I don't run and jump and shout like I used to, but I'm telling you, I feel like doing it right now. Hallelujah! I believe that God has done something so wonderful down through the ages in the hearts of men and women, and I believe he still wants to do something that's at least akin to it.

I've got enough sense to know that there's something about the day of Pentecost that was special and dispensational and unusual and all that that probably will never be duplicated again, but it ought to be something that we can say, I can enter into that in my spirit, I feel that way, I don't criticize it, I like it, I believe that the same God that came with fire and rushing mighty wind still comes in ways that are supernatural.

I believe that. Let me go to some of these scriptures, pictures of what this experience of God's grace is, and I guess I'll just call this some symbols. I don't know, there's something about the way God has made us that we understand object lessons better than we do, oh, what shall I say, just up in the air, hazy concepts.

If we see pictures, we just understand it a little better. And, you know, that's the way we teach children. We use flannel graphs and chalkboards and object lessons and all that. And so God, and I don't like to use that expression, but I don't know a better one, God in his attempt to help us to see what this wonderful promise of the Father is, has chosen through his word to use symbols to give us a picture.

Fire as a Symbol of God's Presence and Sanctifying Grace

And let me give you some of those symbols for a little while in our Bible study this morning. The first one of those symbols, and I maybe ought to make it the last one because it's so tremendous, but the first symbol I'd like to mention is the symbol of fire.

Fire has a number of things about it that probably keeps it an outstanding symbol of God's presence and blessing and so on. Fire is attractive. Fire is purging. Fire is purifying. Fire is awe-inspiring.

Fire is protective. And that's one thing that God has meant to do with this experience of entire sanctification. There ought to be something attractive about it. There is something purging and cleansing and purifying and awe-inspiring.

There's something comforting about it. There's something that's a protection to us. Praise the Lord forever. I don't know how many times that symbol is used through the Scripture, but probably most Bible students think that that was what God used for a sign that Abel's sacrifice was accepted.

We read that Abel's sacrifice was accepted of God. We don't know that for sure. The Bible doesn't make it indefinite. But from other things, we think that that might be what happened there, that Abel made his offering to God, and God showed his approval of it by sending fire down upon that.

And we will be on the road to fanaticism if we start insisting that we see with these eyes and we feel and so on these things, but there ought to be something that we can say is just as real. I remember, well, we'll maybe say that some other time.

The same thing with Abraham's sacrifice that I mentioned the other day, when God told Abraham that he was going to inherit the land of Canaan, and Abraham said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?

The Lord said, Make a sacrifice and stay by it, and he stayed by it until the fire fell. And I do know this, there's nothing as convincing as the fire of God coming down. That's the most convincing thing that can ever happen.

And Moses at the burning bush, again, there was the symbol of fire, the presence of God, that must have been a marvelous experience. And sometimes people just can't understand what God has, what shall I say, done everything he could to make clear.

I read about one man that preached on Moses at the burning bush, and he said, Now the main thing of interest in this circumstance was Moses approached that situation like a scientist, and he said, I want to see why that bush is burning and it's not burning up.

Well, that's a pretty cheap and low level of grasping what that was. Somehow or another, it got through to Moses. God is there. God is there. And the Lord said, Moses, take your shoes off, and you're standing on holy ground.

And I may be wrong on this, but I, well, I'm like the fellow who said he was very stubborn in his feelings about it, and I'm very stubborn in my feelings about this. But you know, I have a feeling that when Moses went through all of the things that he did for those 40 years of leading the children of Israel, I have a feeling that when some difficulty came up that was just more than he knew how to face, he probably could recall that time, he said, I remember that day when I was out there on the mountainside, and God appeared to me, and I saw the flame of fire in the bush, and he heard that voice coming out, and I can tell you this, you'll never forget it.

You'll never forget it when you come to that place where you meet God, and he manifests himself by the fire of his presence, and I'll venture to say that until Moses laid down his life up there, after he'd viewed the land, I'll venture to say he said, I remember that time out there on the mountainside when the bush burned with fire, and I heard that voice out of the bush speaking to me.

You can't forget it. You just, I don't think you can in a way. I can't forget what happened to me, and probably, I won't hold myself in, and I'll probably tell you sometime about it, but you can't forget it.

The Shekinah Glory and God's Guidance in the Wilderness

Then the Shekinah in the wilderness. There was nothing that the children of Israel needed more than that presence of God. It was the Shekinah glory of God, the manifested presence of God, that stood between the Egyptian army and the children of Israel.

It was that Shekinah glory that led them through the wilderness. Wouldn't that be wonderful if we all followed that Shekinah glory presence of God? Can I tell you something here that's real interesting to me?

This is real interesting to me. The Shekinah glory of God was guiding them from the time that they were typically became the people of God, the crossing of the Red Sea. It did not alone belong to the land of Canaan, but it belonged to the leadership of the Spirit of God from the time they got out of Egypt until they got into the land of Canaan.

And wouldn't it have been a comforting thing to get up in the morning and go to the door of your tent and look over there toward the tabernacle and say, the presence of God is still with us. That must have been a marvelous thing.

I love to read that. I wish I could quote it well enough, but somewhere there in the latter part of Exodus we read something like this, that Moses reared up the tabernacle as the Lord commanded him. And then, and I'm not trying to remember everything and I can't remember it, but he set out the table as the Lord commanded and they set out the incense as the Lord commanded and they set the veils as the Lord commanded.

One thing after another said, as the Lord commanded. And then comes that grand verse at the end that says, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. But before it were all those things, as the Lord commanded, as the Lord commanded, as the Lord commanded, as the Lord commanded.

Then the glory of God filled the tabernacle and the priests couldn't even stay in there. The glory of God was so outstanding. I'd like to tell you this. Won't go into much detail about it. I haven't seen very much of this in my life.

But, and struck to the floor under the weight of the glory of God. That service is still a happy and a vivid memory to me. There ought to be a few more times like that happening in our life. Well, again, the fire was assembled.

Isaiah's Temple Vision and the Call to Holy Ministry

In Isaiah's vision, you remember, and all, I believe, all of Isaiah's marvelous preaching could be pointed back to that time in the year that King Uzziah died. He said, I saw the Lord and my lips were touched with a live coal from off the altar.

And if you want to read Isaiah 53 or Isaiah 64 or Isaiah 35 or Isaiah 12, any of those marvelous, outstanding messages, and suppose we'd have asked Isaiah, say, Isaiah, how come you preach like that about the wilderness and the solitary place?

You'll be glad for them. The desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose, and the dry land will become springs of water. Isaiah, what gave you the stimulus and the help to preach that? He might have said, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord and the fire of the Holy One touched my lips.

And brethren, that's what we all need as preachers of the gospel. We need to be able to point to a time where someone has said, there needs to come some time, I think maybe in everybody's life, but most certainly in a minister's life, where he has to say, I was overwhelmed by the presence of God.

Not just some little thing that you can explain away, but something that's overwhelming. Again, we have this picture in Ezekiel's vision. I think I can just about remember it. What did he say? You could have asked him, said, Ezekiel, did anything like this ever happen to you?

Can you remember anything about, did anything like that ever happen to you? He'd have said, listen, I want to tell you something. 30th year, 4th month, 5th day. How do you like that? There was no wonder about it.

He said, 30th year, 4th month, 5th day, I was by the rivers of Kibar. I saw visions of God. I saw fire, unfolding fire. I saw seraphim. I saw cherubim. I saw wheels that were so high they were dreadful.

I saw something that looked like a firmament. I can't tell you what it was like, but it looked like a firmament. And there was something above it. I can't tell you what it was, but it looked like a throne.

And on that throne, there was a man sitting. And that man was over the whole thing. Hallelujah! There's something of the mighty work of God that's perhaps more than, I know it's more than I've ever seen, but I'll tell you, I still long in my heart to see something like that.

Again and again and again. But there it was. You can ask Ezekiel, how come, Ezekiel? How come you got that kind of a message? I'll sprinkle clean water and you shall be clean. From all your filthiness, from all your idols, will I cleanse you?

He said, listen, I want to tell you something. There is something about that symbol of God is chosen to help us to understand what that great experience is. Those living creatures went like flashes of lightning.

Malachi's Refiner's Fire and Purification of the Sons of Levi

Well, we go on down through history a little farther. Praise the Lord. Malachi preached something like that. I still remember the time I heard Brother Schmuel preach from this passage here. You remember how Malachi was preaching?

He said that the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple. Here's an interesting point. Who is it that's going to come? The messenger of the covenant that you delight in. And I wonder if anyone ever gets sanctified holy until they've come to the place where they're delighting in following him.

The messenger of the covenant whom you delight in. He shall come, saith the Lord. What's he going to do? He's going to sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. And who's he going to purify? The crowd out there?

The children of Israel? No, he's going to deal with the sons of Levi, the folks that are at the best place spiritually of the entire crowd of Israel. He's going to purify them. And I do not believe very much that people that are half defeated and living below the privileges of regeneration and living in sin, they don't need to seek to get sanctified holy.

They need to get saved. They need to get saved. But he's going to purify the sons of Levi until they can offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. And they tell us, I suppose there's truth in it, that that purifying of the gold and silver, the heat of the fire was kept on until the ore was so purified, so they tell us, till the refiner could see his own image again.

Well, that's the preaching of Malachi. But we come a little farther. The last one of the preachers that preached in that old dispensation and moved into the new, and that was John the Baptist's great text.

John the Baptist's Proclamation of the Lamb and Spirit Baptism

And I like that. And I know, again, this is preacher imagination. I won't say oratoric because I don't have oratorical abilities. But we'll just call it preacher imagination that he had two big texts that he preached from.

The one was, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. I like that, don't you? And the other one was, He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire. Well, I tell you, if we had very much preaching like that, it would probably do us a lot of good, too.

Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. He'll baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire. That would just about cover the whole field, wouldn't it? Well, let me go to another one of these symbols that I think is also very beautiful, and that's the symbol of water.

Water as a Symbol of Refreshment, Cleansing, and New Life

Fire is cleansing, purifying, purging, protecting, comforting. But water has some other, and it would be impossible to think of enough pictures that would portray what this great grace of God is. But God has chosen another one, and that is the symbol of water.

Water has the idea of refreshing and cleansing and life-giving, and it causes new growth. I enjoyed that picture the other night that we heard of what the water would do. I learned a little bit about what water can do the first time I got out in irrigated country.

I'd never been in irrigated country, and I remember we'd be going right along the highway, and on this side was sagebrush and sand. That's all there was. But over on this side, it was irrigated, and there would be fruit trees, orchards, strawberries, all of those things, and the whole difference was just the water.

I have a little memory of my time in irrigated country that I'd just like to just tell you briefly. I got acquainted with some fine people in that country where we spent a summer, and one man gave to me and my wife, we could have all the fruit we could pick off from a certain apricot tree.

And that apricot, I never did like apricots very well anyway. I always thought they were too sour and bitter. But anyway, he gave us that apricot tree to pick fruit off, and it was right out in the middle of a field, and you that have been around that kind of irrigation know what the corrugations are.

They'd have them there, and that field had been dry for so long, and the tree was up on a little bit of a knoll anyway. So water didn't get to it very well. Now I know I'm going to exaggerate here because I got that tendency, and it seems that way to me, but it seems like those apricots were just a little bigger than walnuts and just about as tender.

That's what it seemed like. It wasn't worth having it. But another man, actually I think it was a cousin of this fellow, he also gave us an apricot tree that we could have the fruit from it, and it was growing right on the bank of the irrigation stream.