Revelation Or Recitation Published in the GOLDEN GRAIN - Volume 21  - Number 9 - December, 1946

A Sermon By Dr Charles S. Price

God's children everywhere are rejoicing in the unfolding revelation of our Lord. What we receive from God is revelation; what we receive from man is recitation. Now the recitation may be good and true, but it can never take the place of the unfolding of the Divine purposes and will before the individual heart. Jesus would have taught Simon Peter the lesson of His identity and the purpose of His coming, but He left that for the unfolding of the truth under the light of revelation. "Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto thee but My Father which is in heaven." Matt. 16:17 God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. Revelation does not come in the realm of flesh and blood. It does not approach us down the avenues of our reason The Revelation of St. John on the Isle of Patmos would never have been seen had he not been able to predicate that glorious story with the words, "I was IN THE SPIRIT, on the Lord's Day." Perhaps there are people who profess that the spirit lives in them and yet they have not learned how "to live the Spirit."  In airplane travel one finds a splendid illustration of a spiritual truth, What a tremendous part "altitude" plays in the flight and safety of the plane. Above the earth there are certain LAYERS. On some low level it may be raining. Above that, there may be fog; above that air pockets and conditions that make for a rough journey. And still, above it, the strata where one can travel in the light of the sun, above the bumpy pathways that are below. Thus it is that one learns to RISE IN THE SPIRIT. It is only IN SPIRIT that we can worship God! Lip service only is not acceptable. We can ask Him for His LIFTING POWER. We can RISE TO MEET HIM! We can learn to LIVE IN THE SPIRIT!  The children of the Lord, by revelation, are now having opened to them. THE SECRETS OF THE KINGDOM! Even as the scientists are delving into the secrets of the universe and bringing forth facts and experiments in which there is life and death, so the children of the Lord are having opened before them the secrets of the Kingdom. When one, is earth bound the true perspective of the picture is never seen. It is from the higher level that the contour of humanity begins to take shape and place. On the earth of "flesh-level" there seems to be a great deal of smug complacency and intense satisfaction in the achievements of the race. But when we rise in the Spirit, we see the captivity and the bondage in which men are held and cry for the Advent of the great Deliverer! One cannot see these things in a study of sociology or political economy. In what darkness do men walk and with what blindness do they grope their way! They cannot see because the vision comes only by REVELATION! "Against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.. ." Romans 2:5  Paul speaks of this OPEN AVENUE TO KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING when he says in Ephesians 1:17 and 18 "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints ..." There is a spiritual dynamic in that Scripture that we can not get by mere Bible study. Paul is praying that from the Lord the people may be given the SPIRIT OF WISDOM AND REVELATION! He asks that the eyes of the UNDERSTANDING would become enlightened. It is only by such revelation that we can know what the "riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints" really is, It is only by revelation that we can know the "exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe (verse 19)  Peter knew of this approach to the things of God. "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind and be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST." I Peter 1:13 This rough, uncouth, Galilean fisherman could have received the deep .treasures of the Lord in no other way than by revelation. From the day that Jesus said to him, "Flesh and blood has not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven" to the final word of the last chapter of his epistle, Peter knew the beauty of the unfolding of the wisdom which is of above. He knew what it was to meet and commune with God. Like his brother, John, he knew that the mysteries of the Kingdom are only known by revelation.  When one speaks through the natural senses, it is recitation. But now the Spirit would, by revelation, unveil the hidden things of this world and of the Kingdom. Immediately the revelation is put into words to tell another, it becomes recitation and, hence, the difficulty of transmission. Under Law, the priests and prophets and kings were instructed to tell the people the will and the purpose of God. Only the High Priest was permitted into the Divine presence there to behold the glory of the Shekinah and come face to face with the Eternal. But when Jesus died on Calvary, the veil of the temple was rent in twain. We needed, then, no intermediary. We needed no High Priest, but the one Christ Jesus. The Father is willing to reveal Himself to all of His children There is only one door; one avenue of approach to God, and that is the  LORD JESUS CHRIST!