Lisa Barry: If there's one thing our society hates, it's talk about sin. Everybody wants to feel good about themselves. Have you ever seen anyone on a TV talk show telling their guests that they'd better deal with their sin? It'll never happen. But as we'll find out today, dealing with sin is the first vow a person has to make in order to receive spiritual power. Find out more as we begin this Monday edition of Gateway To Joy.

Elisabeth Elliot: "You are loved with an everlasting love." That's what the Bible says. "And underneath are the everlasting arms." This is your friend Elisabeth Elliot, talking with you today about five vows for spiritual power. Now I know that some people object to taking vows, but in the Bible you will find many great men of God directed by covenants, promises, vows and pledges.

My counsel in this matter is that if you are really concerned about spiritual improvements--the gaining of power, new life, new joy and new personal revival within your heart--you will do well to make certain vows and proceed to keep them.

If you should fail, go down in humility and repent and start over. But always keep these vows before you; they will help harmonize your heart with vast powers that flow out and down from the throne where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. A carnal man refuses the discipline of such commitments. He says, "I want to be free. I don't want to lay any vows upon myself. I don't believe in it. It's legalism."

Well, let me paint a picture of two men, one of them will not take vows. He will not accept any responsibility, he wants to be free, and he is free--in a measure--just as a tramp is free. The tramp is free to sit on a park bench by day, sleep on a newspaper by night, get chased out of town on Thursday morning, and find his way up a set of creaky stairs in some flop house on Thursday night. Such a man is free, but he is also useless. He clutters up the world, whose air he breaths.

Well, let's look at another man. Maybe a President or Prime Minister or any great man who carries upon himself the weight of government. Such men are not free, but in the sacrifice of their freedom they step up their power. If they insist upon being free they can be free just like the tramp, but they choose rather to be bound. There are many religious tramps in the world who will not be bound by anything. They have turned the grace of God into personal license. But the great souls are ones who have gone reverently to God with the understanding that in their flesh dwells no good thing. They know that without God's enablement any vows taken would be broken before sundown. Nevertheless, believing in God, reverently they took certain sacred vows.

This is the way to spiritual power. A.W. Tozer gives five vows. He says, "The one that I have in mind, which we do well to make and keep, is deal thoroughly with sin." Now I want to interweave with these five spiritual vows five wonderful hymns that have been a part of my growing up life and throughout up to my old age. The hymn that I think goes along so beautifully with this first spiritual vow is "Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt! Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured--there where the blood of the Lamb was spilt." The second stanza says, "Sin and despair, like the sea waves cold, threaten the soul with infinite loss; Grace that is greater--yes grace untold-- points to the Refuge, the mighty Cross."

And I want you to listen as you hear the tune to this wonderful hymn.

Sin has been driven underground these days and has come up with a new name and face. You may be subjected to this phenomenon in the schools. Sin is being called by various fancy names--anything but what it really is. For example, men don't get a guilt complex. Instead of confessing their guilt to God and getting rid of it--forgetting that marvelous grace of our loving Lord--they lie on a couch and try to tell a man who ought to know better all about themselves. It comes out after a while that they were disappointed when they were two years old or some such thing. That's supposed to make them better.

The whole thing is ridiculous because sin is still the ancient enemy of the soul. It has never changed. We've got to deal firmly with sin in our lives. Let's remember that. "The kingdom of God," Paul said, "is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost."

"Righteousness lies at the door of the kingdom of God," someone has said. And the Bible says, "The soul that sinneth it shall die."

Now I am not preaching sinless perfection. This is to say that every known sin is to be named, identified and repudiated, and that we must trust God for deliverance from it so that there's no conscience, deliberate sin anywhere in our lives. It's absolutely necessary that we deal this way because God is a holy God and sin is on the throne of the world.

So don't call your sins by some other name. If you're jealous, call it jealousy. If you tend to pity yourself and feel that you're not appreciated, but are like a flower born to flush unseen on the desert air, call it what it is--self-pity. I am convinced that self-pity is satanic.

Now where did I get that idea? Is that just an Elisabeth Elliot notion? No, remember the story of when Jesus was on His way up to Jerusalem. He told the disciples that He was going to suffer many things at the hands of the priests, and He was going to be killed. Peter's reaction to that news was probably just what yours and mine would have been, "Oh no, Lord! This must never happen to you."

Now the Bible doesn't actually say that Jesus swung around and grabbed Peter by the arm, but I can sort of imagine that He might have done that. Because you know what He said to Peter? He said, "Get behind me Satan. You do not think as God thinks. You think as men think." Jesus was determined to set His face like a flint and go straight up to Jerusalem regardless of the death that awaited Him there.

Let us go to the foot of the cross and remember, and here it is in this hymn: "Dark is the stain that we cannot hide, what can avail to wash it away? Look! There is flowing a crimson tide--whiter than snow you may be today. Grace, grace, God's grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse within; Grace, grace, infinite grace, grace that is greater than all our sin!"

Sometimes we harbor resentment. If you're resentful, admit it. I've met people who live in a state of sputtering indignation most of the time. They just seem to be like a tiger in a corner. You don't dare approach them because they're going to lash out with those claws. I knew a lady in our church who was just that sort of person. I never could figure what in the world it was that made her so angry, so resentful, and so "un-get-along-with-able." But it was very clear that she herself was miserable. And many people tried to help her.

Then there's your temper. Don't call it indignation! Don't try to christen it by some other name. Call it what it is, because if you've had a bad temper you will either get rid of it, or it will get rid of much of your spirituality and most of your joy.

So let's deal with sin thoroughly. Let's be perfectly candid. God loves candid people.

Lisa Barry: Are you a candid person? I'd like to think I am, because I've found that if I'm honest with God and people about my shortcomings, they lose their power over me and God can work more freely in me. You know, a book that I've just started reading has already had a huge impact on my spiritual thinking and it's called The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. I'm sure many of you are familiar with it. It's one of those books that you don't skim over, but pour over every word. And then you pause to think about how it applies to your life. I love reading things that shake me up a bit. This is one of those books, and we have it available for you to purchase. The cost is $9.50, and you can send that amount along with your request to:

Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska 68501. We also have this week of talks available to purchase. The title to ask for when you write is "5 Vows for Spiritual Power." That's Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska 68501. Or toll-free 1-800-759-4JOY.

Gateway To Joy is a listener-supported production of Back to the Bible. And as a ministry that aims to support the varied needs of women, it's my prayer that you will do likewise and aim to support the ministry that helps you. If Gateway To Joy is making a difference in your life, we'd love to hear from you by way of testimony and financial support. Let's be there for each other. Tomorrow Elisabeth talks about the value in letting go of stuff. Find out more next time on Gateway To Joy.