- 19Go then and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20Teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you all the days perpetually, uniformly, and on every occasion), to the [very] close and consummation of the age. Amen (so let it be). {Mathew 28:19-20}
DO WHAT?
FOR WHOM?
All Nations
HOW?
1. Works of Piety
The chief of these means of the works of peity are;
Prayer
- Prayer is an essential part of Christian living. Christians are to pray constantly, without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Pray for your salvation. Pray for the lost to come to salvation. Pray for those who have come to salvation to find a place to grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Bible Study
- Read the Bible every day. Study it with a group who desire nothing but God.
Fasting
- People in Old Testament times fasted (Ezra 8:23). So did Jesus and his followers (Matthew 4:2; Acts 13:3)
- John Wesley fasted two days a week, Wednesdays and Fridays, in his younger days. Later he fasted on Fridays.
- Fasting advances holiness.
Lord’s Supper
- God’s grace is conveyed through the Lord’s Supper and that it is a major way God nourishes us.
2. The Works of Mercy
Most simply defined, “works of mercy” are “doing good.” “Means of grace,” include both “works of piety”(instituted means of grace) and “works of mercy” (prudential means of grace). Wesley described the works of mercy in his sermons on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount as follows:
- And, First, with regard to works of mercy. “Take heed,” saith he,”that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: Otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.” “That ye do not your alms:” — Although this only is named, yet is every work of charity included, every thing which we give, or speak, or do, whereby our neighbour may be profited; whereby another man may receive any advantage, either in his body or soul.
- The feeding the hungry, the clothing the naked, the entertaining or assisting the stranger, the visiting those that are sick or in prison, the comforting the afflicted, the instructing the ignorant, the reproving the wicked, the exhorting and encouraging the well-doer; and if there be any other work of mercy, it is equally included in this direction.
People must be Christians in both word and deed, which is to express the love of God. Christians must grow in God’s grace, which first prepares us for belief, then accepts us when we respond to God in faith, and sustains us as we do good works and participate in God’s mission. John Wesley not only preached about works of mercy, he “practiced” what he preached. For example, he:
- lived modestly and gave all he could to help people who were poor
- visited people in prison and provided spiritual guidance, food, and clothing to them
- spoke out against slavery and forbade it in Methodism
- founded schools at the Foundery in London, Bristol, and Newcastle
- published books, pamphlets, and magazines for the education and spiritual edification of people
- taught and wrote about good health practices and even dispensed medicine from his chapels
Christians must do both works of piety and works of mercy in order to move on toward;
3. Christian Perfection {Holy Living}
{JW)
(1.) Perhaps the general prejudice against Christian perfection may chiefly arise from a misapprehension of the nature of it.
- We willingly allow, and continually declare, there is no such perfection in this life, as implies either a dispensation from doing good, and attending all the ordinances of God, or a freedom from ignorance, mistake, temptation, and a thousand infirmities necessarily connected with flesh and blood.
(2.) First. We not only allow, but earnestly contend, that there is no perfection in this life, which implies any dispensation from attending all the ordinances of God, or from doing good unto all men while we have time, though ‘especially unto the household of faith.’
- We believe, that not only the babes in Christ, who have newly found redemption in his blood, but those also who are ‘grown up into perfect men,’ are indispensably obliged, as often as they have opportunity, ‘to eat bread and drink wine in remembrance of Him,’ and to ‘search the Scriptures;’ by fasting, as well as temperance, to ‘keep their bodies under, and bring them into subjection;’ and, above all, to pour out their souls in prayer, both secretly, and in the great congregation.
“(3.) We Secondly believe, that there is no such perfection in this life, as implies an entire deliverance, either from ignorance, or mistake, in things not essential to salvation, or from manifold temptations, or from numberless infirmities, wherewith the corruptible body more or less presses down the soul.
- We cannot find any ground in Scripture to suppose, that any inhabitant of a house of clay is wholly exempt either from bodily infirmities, or from ignorance of many things;or to imagine any is incapable of mistake, or falling into divers temptations.
”(4.) But whom then do you mean by ‘one that is perfect?’ We mean one in whom is ‘the mind which was in Christ,’ and who so ‘walketh as Christ also walked;’ a man ‘that hath clean hands and a pure heart,’ or that is ‘cleansed from all filthiness of flesh and spirit;’ one in whom is ‘no occasion of stumbling,’ and who, accordingly, ‘does not commit sin.’ To declare this a little more particularly:
- We understand by that scriptural expression, ‘a perfect man,’ one in whom God hath fulfilled his faithful word, ‘From all your filthiness and from all your idols I will cleanse you: I will also save you from all your uncleannesses.’ We understand hereby, one whom God lath ‘sanctified throughout in body, soul, and spirit;’ one who ‘walketh in the light as He is in the light, in whom is no darkness at all; the blood of Jesus Christ his Son having cleansed him from all sin.’
“(5.) This man can now testify to all mankind,
- ‘I am crucified with Christ: Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.’
- He is ‘holy as God who called’ him ‘is holy,’ both in heart and ‘in all manner of conversation.’
- He ‘loveth the Lord his God with all his heart,’ and serveth him ‘with all his strength.’
- He ‘loveth his neighbour,’ every man, ‘as himself;’ yea, ‘as Christ loveth us;’ them, in particular, that ‘despitefully use him and persecute him, because they know not the Son, neither the Father.’
- Indeed his soul is all love, filled with ‘bowels of mercies, kindness, meekness, gentleness, longsuffering.’ And his life agreeth thereto, full of ‘the work of faith, the patience of hope, the labour of love.’ ‘
- And whatsoever’ he ‘doeth either in word or deed,’ he ‘doeth it all in the name,’ in the love and power, ‘of the Lord Jesus.’ In a word, he doeth ‘the will of God on earth, as it is done in heaven.’
”(6.) This it is to be a perfect man, to be ‘sanctified throughout;’ even ‘to have a heart so all-flaming with the love of God,’ (to use Archbishop Usher’s words,) ‘as continually to offer up every thought, word, and work, as a spiritual sacrifice, acceptable to God through Christ.’
- In every thought of our hearts, in every word of our tongues, in every work of our hands, to ‘show forth his praise, who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light.’ O that both we, and all who seek the Lord Jesus in sincerity, may thus ‘be made perfect in one!’”
This is the doctrine which we preached from the beginning, and which we preach at this day. Indeed, by viewing it in every point of light, and comparing it again and again with the word of God on the one hand, and the experience of the children of God on the other, we saw farther into the nature and properties of Christian perfection. But still there is no contrariety at all between our first and our last sentiments. Our first conception of it was,
- It is to have “the mind which was in Christ,” and to “walk as He walked;” to have all the mind that was in Him, and always to walk as he walked:
- In other words, to be inwardly and outwardly devoted to God; all devoted in heart and life. And we have the same conception of it now, without either addition or diminution.
