THIS is a lesson based on the text John 10:28: "They shall never
perish." They shall never perish because they are in His keeping. Oh
how safe are those who trust Him in the hollow of His hand, for "they
shall never perish."
This is an object lesson teaching the divine "security of the
Believer." Produce a fair sized cardboard heart on which write your
name. This is the way of announcing your salvation. Religion is an
affair of the heart. It goes to the heart, changes the heart, keeps
the heart. An old whaler once said he'd been in the business for so
many years he could talk about nothing else save whales and said "When
I am dead, if you should open my heart, I think you would find the
word 'whale' in its centre." His business was an affair of his heart.
I am sure that deep in the believer's heart you would find the name
'Jesus' written, because religion is an affair of the heart to every
true believer.
To put this lesson over in a large way, secure a number of boxes each
just a little larger than the other so they will nest well. On the
first box, print a large cross as large as the side of the box will
permit. Now drop the heart into that box and close the lid tightly.
The heart is now hid in the Cross, and is safe forever. Your money you
may lose, a thief may make way with it. It may take wings and fly away
out of your sure keeping place, but when you give your heart over to
the keeping of the Cross, you are safe forevermore. The word says
"They shall never perish" because they are in His keeping. Now take a
slightly larger box marked "His care." Place the box marked with a
cross inside of this box and close the lid. Now I am doubly safe, for
I am in Christ, and also in God's care. God cares for the sparrow, for
the Word says, "Not a sparrow falleth to the ground without your
Heavenly Father." Not alone that He sees and counts the fallen bird,
but that He comes down with it. God attends the funeral of even a
fallen sparrow. If He so cares for a bird, will He not care more for
me! And He does and so I am safe in His care.
Take the next larger box and mark it "His Love," and in this box place
the one marked "His Care." Every believer tents in the love land of
the heart of God. "He so loved that we might not perish." And so we
are safe in His love. No man dare tamper with the love marked children
of His. Even Satan is afraid of that power. Put this box into the
larger box marked "His Power." Another wall has been built around the
believer. It is God's great wall of power. Now the Love box believer
is surrounded by God's power. Christ said "All power is given unto
me." And it wraps the believer up in this girdle of strength for the
Gospel in the heart is "the power of God unto Salvation." In I Peter
1:15 we are told we are "kept by the power of God." The hand that
holds the sea in the hollow thereof holds me in safety. His power is
my fortress. I can smile at all foes. I am safe in the hollow of His
hand of power. Now place this box in the next larger size box, have it
marked 'His Promise.' He has given me His promises "I will never leave
thee nor forsake thee." (Hebrews 15:5.) He whispered those dear words
to me when he lifted me from the cross of penitence and gave me the
kiss of salvation. He is able to keep His promises and | am trusting
in His word. He has said that "He that begun a good work in you shall
perform it until that day." The day of His coming. I will trust that
promise, and tremble not, nor fear what man can do unto me. "As the
mountains are around about Jerusalem, so is the Lord round about them
that fear Him. As the sides of this Promise box are around about me,
so are the mountains of His power. I am closed in by tons of
mountains, a congress of giants, so Salvation is God's safety box. It
shuts the soul in His Cross, His Care, His Love, His Power, His
Promises. No wonder it is written "They shall _never_ perish." Marvel
not it is written "No man shall pluck them out of my hand." When Noah
and his wife, and his three sons, and their wives went into the Ark,
God shut them in, and they were safe. When God shuts the door He shuts
the soul in. No man can open. God holds the key. It is a secret
combination lock. God knows the combination. No man can know it. It is
a secret God will not whisper to any one in all the world. Closed
in--locked in--that is enough, my soul, to live by and keep me
divinely calm, now, and in the hour of death. "In His keeping" is
Heaven's way of writing the word salvation.
If the box method is too elaborate, to work out, you can use a nest of
envelopes. They put the lesson over just the same.
=CHAPTER XXIII
A CANDLE LIGHT LESSON=
_Objects used: A collection of candles_