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Quiet Talks on John's Gospel by S. D. (Samuel Dickey) Gordon
page 90 of 225 (40%)
Have you noticed that _Jesus_ hadn't enough influence with the officials
of His day to keep from the cross? No: but He had enough _power_ to
break the official emblem of earth's greatest authority, the Roman seal
on the Joseph tomb. Rather striking that; intensely significant for us
moderns. _Peter_ hadn't enough _influence_ with the authorities to keep
out of jail. Sounds rather disgraceful that, does it not? Aye, but he
had enough _power_ with God to open jail-doors and walk quietly out
against the wish of those highest in authority.

Influence has its proper place. It's good, _if_ it is. But we are not
saved by it. We are not saved by what some one else can do for us; "not
of the will of man." Your mother's prayers and your wife's, and the
influence of their godly lives will have great weight. It's a great
blessing to have them. They help enormously. But the thing itself that
takes a man into the presence of God, saved and redeemed, is something
immensely more than this, some action of his own that goes to the roots
as none of these other things do.

One time a deputation waited on Lincoln to press a matter of public
concern. But his keenly logical mind discerned flaws in their
impassioned and carefully worked out arguments. He waited patiently till
their case was complete. And then in that quiet way for which he was
famous, he said, "How many legs would a sheep have if you called its
tail a leg?" As he expected, they promptly answered "Five." "No," he
said, "it wouldn't; it would have only four. _Calling_ a tail a leg does
not make it one." So a simple bit of his homely sense and accurate logic
scattered their finely spun argument.

Calling either family or culture or influence the chief thing doesn't
make it so. These are John's three tremendous "nots." They rather cut
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