We hope this helps anyone in their daily walk. To hear sermons go to: http://www.youtube.com/user/aslafjasldfk?feature=mhee

1. Romans 3:26:
"To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness:
that he might be just, and the justifier of him
which believeth in Jesus."
Philippians 1:29:
"For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ,
not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for
his sake"
This article is about the experiences with the
Lord to be able to understand these scriptures.
to understand the truth in them. To understand
the benefit and blessing of being given in the
behalf of Christ, no only to believe in him but
also to suffer for his sake; when this suffering
comes, to be able from the heart to say God is
just.
In 1951. God so dealt with me that in my own
sight I became such a sinner that I knew I
needed grace; salvation by works was just
washed out of my belief. That which I had been
taught all my life now seemed wrong. My
burden of guilt was so heavy I cried out to the
Lord for mercy. God lifted me up in joy and
relief and what I learned later was that I was
justified by faith in his blood. As I studied the
bible very intensely, I saw that it was given to
me no only to believe on Christ but to suffer for
his sake. I could see that without ,that suffering,
I never would have changed. In those moments

2. of study and also from preaching I heard, I felt
that God was very just and righteous to have
dealt with me. I also felt that I was one of his
elect and Jesus' blood was shed for me. This
doctrine that I had been taught growing up had
been very unjust on God's part as we needed
the obedience of works to be saved. But now I
could see how unjust the doctrine of works was.
It was a doctrine of if you continued in
obedience, yet you could lose everything if you
failed. I cannot describe the joy and enjoyment I
had after I was baptized and was a member of
Little Flock.
In 1952, I began to take time in the pulpit in a
very weak and unskilled way. It seemed to be
church policy that it was an act of arrogance to
take a bible to church and if you talked to much
about the scriptures, you were wanting to be
recognized as a preacher. When I did speak, I
seemed to always apply it wrong. This bothered
me very much as I did want to speak the truth.
This problem caused me to study almost .
constantly. I even seemed to be preaching
when at work in the stone quarry. I became as ..
one of our dear old preachers name me, "an
interesting smart-alec." If I questioned any.of
our preachers about the scriptures, their answer
was that the Primitive Baptist had looked at·it in
a traditional way. This was such a frustration to
me. I didnlwant to be wrong. I dearly wanted
to be in fellowship. As Betty, my wife, and f·

3. visited other churches in our denomination, we
found there was a difference of opinions among
the Elders. A few of them like to discuss
scripture meanings, but most did not. Our
churches were bound together in Association
fellowship. There were seven or eight in Indiana
and were in correspondence with at least three
associations in Illinois and also two or three in
Ohio.
This great block of fellowship had a number of
very influential Elders and they were mostly
moderators of associations which gave them
much authority as to who would be invited to fill
apPOintments at the different churches. The
association seemed to be more important than
the churches. This seemed to be wrong to me
as Isaiah 8:9-13 seemed to teach: «Associate
yourselves, 0 ye people, and ye shall be broken
in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries:
gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in
pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken
in pieces. 10: Take counsel together, and it
shall come to nought;. speak the word, and it
shall not stand: for God is with us. 11: For the
LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and
instructed me that I should not walk in the. way of
this people, saying, 12: Say ye not, A
confederacy, to all them to whom this people
shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their
fear, .nor be afraid. 13: Sanctify the LORD of

4. hosts himself,- and let him be your fear, and let
him be your dread. "
Now this is just my travels in our church which
seemed such a blessed place to me. At that
time our churches had members in secret orders
and felt the washing of the Saints feet was
wrong. As I was an onlooker to this, a few of our
preachers were preaching against secret orders
and for feet washing and I felt they were right as
the bible taught. I wondered greatly as the·
enmity against it. These men were finally put.
out of fellowship and two of our churches were :
told,at the association meeting, to get rid of their
pastor or their entire association would be put
out of correspondence. One church obeyed .
immediately and one church kept their pastor
and was cut off from·fellowship. This Pastor
continued for a short time and then resigned
because his presence, he felt, was hurting the
church regarding visitation from sister churches.
All of this was a great sorrow and burden to me.· .
In due time, this church (that had been cut off)
asked me to be their pastor. This caused a
great turmoil in my mind. I knew if I took the.
pastorship, I would be out of order in at least
three states and possibly even more. I felt
impressed by an experience that I should go, yet
I didn't want to be out of fellowship everywhere I
went. Finally, I had a dream that showed me
what a hypocrite I ~as so I made the decision to

5. pastor the church. I felt about like Jonah when
he was thrown overboard into the sea. I Jearned
to see how just and righteous God was in
Jonah's experience. At that time, I felt that God .
somehow didn't care; that he seemed to bless
evil and hate the good. Malachi 2: 17 states, "Ve
have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye
say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye .
say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the
sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or,
Where is the God ofjudgment?l1 .
God showed me that I was saying in my heart
and mind, "where is 1he God of Judgment?" He··
also brought to my memory the pit from where· I·
was dug. I began to learn that God should not
be questioned and that he is just and right. That
God is true and every man, left to himself, is a
liar.
As pastor of this church; I learned that these
people were very hurt that they were held out of
fellowship even after their pastor was gone and
also that me taking their church didn't change
their status. They were being punished for
rebellion, not being wrong. Also, they began to
champion me as being something like a saviour.
Our meetings were very sweet and spiritual, yet .
there was this feeling we were right and every
body else was wrong~ Soon there were people
from other churches that felt they had been .
treated wrong and had been excluded so began

6. to come there to church also. I began to be
greatly burdened as I could see a great. probiem
coming and I was there only guide. The visiting
people though never once wanted membership.
They just wanted to go to church where they
could find good will. I was just begging God to
guide us. Finally I began to preach along the
line of thoughts found in Luke 12:14, "And he
said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a
divider over you?" It seems that we felt that God
wasn't just to let people treat us as they did. No
one from the associations ever came except one
family. I did all the preaching for about 13 years
without a visiting preacher and also my people
didn't visit any more; we were like a little island
surrounded by wrong. We understood such
scriptures as Ecclesiastes 4:1-2, "So I returned,
and considered aI/ the oppressions that are
done under the sun: and behold the tears of
such as were oppressed, and they had no
comforter; and on the side oftheir oppressors
there was power; but they had no comforter.
2: Wherefore I praised the dead which are
already dead more than the living which are yet
alive." We felt the need of nothing but learned
that that was becoming wrong. The good Lord
guided us to the scripture in 6cclesiastes5:8, "If
thou seest the oppreSSion of the poor, and
violent perverting ofjudgment and justice in a
province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is
higher than the highest regardeth; and there be
higher than they." I was no longer their ,. ~

7. champion but seemed to become opposed to
them. As we preached that we should not resist
evil but rather to understand the very sentiment
that Jesus felt when he said, "father forgive them
forthey know not what they do," even as
Stephen prayed, "lay not this sin to their charge."
Proverbs 24: 17-19, "Rejoice not when thine
enemy fa/leth, and let not thine heart be glad
when he stumbleth: 18: Lest the LORD see it,
and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath
from him. 19: Fret not thyself because of evil
men, neither be thou envious at the wicked. By
11
preaching in this kind of spirit, the Lord seemed
to bless and this awful bitterness began to pass.
God was good although his ways are past
finding out. The heighth and depth of the Love
of Christ is past our carnal knowledge. The
associations in this part of God's vineyard have
lost their power as God promised.
This is not written for sympathy or glory on my
part. It is just to show how to live among the
desolate, the discontented, and those in debt.
To be able to have experiences that Christ also
suffered and give an understanding of what Paul
wrote in Philippians 3:7-10, "But what things
were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
8: Yea doubtless, and I count a/l things but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the
loss of a/l things, and do count them but dung,
that I may win Christ, 9: And be found in him, not

8. having mine own righteousness, which is of the
law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith: 10:
That I may know him, and the power of his
resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings,
being made conformable unto his death"

9. Experience With
Romans 3:26
and
Philippians 1:29
By: Elder Don Ellis

10. Creative Commons — Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported — CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)
You are free:
to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
Under the following conditions:
Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the
author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your
use of the work).
Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
No Derivative Works — You may not alter, transform, or build upon this
work.
With the understanding that:
Waiver — Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the
copyright holder.
Public Domain — Where the work or any of its elements is in the public domain under
applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
Other Rights — In no way are any of the following rights affected by the license:
Your fair dealing or fair use rights, or other applicable copyright exceptions and
limitations;
file:///E|/Creative Commons — Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported — CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.htm[4/6/2011 2:39:04 PM]

11. Creative Commons — Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported — CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
The author's moral rights;
Rights other persons may have either in the work itself or in how the work is used,
such as publicity or privacy rights.
Notice — For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of
this work. The best way to do this is with a link to this web page.
This is a human-readable summary of the Legal Code (the full license). Disclaimer
Use this license for your own work.
This page is available in the following languages:
Armenian Belarusian Castellano Castellano (España) Català Deutsch Eesti English Esperanto français hrvatski Italiano Latviski
Magyar Nederlands Người Việt/Tiếng Việt Norsk polski Português Português (BR) română srpski (latinica) Suomeksi svenska Türkçe
čeština Ελληνικά Русский српски 中文 (香港) 日本語 華語 (台灣) 한국어
file:///E|/Creative Commons — Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported — CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.htm[4/6/2011 2:39:04 PM]