Directives for Hating Sin # 2
Though the principle part of the cure is in turning the will to the hatred of sin, and is done by this discovery of its malignity, yet I shall add a few more directives for the executive part, supposing that what is said already has had its effect.
Directive 1 - When you have found out your disease and danger, give up yourselves to Christ as your Saviour and Physician of souls, and to the Holy Spirit as your Sanctifier, remembering that he is sufficient and willing to do the work which he has undertaken. It is not you that are to be saviours and sanctifiers of yourselves (unless as you work under Christ). But God who has undertaken it, takes it for His glory to perform it.
Directive 2 - Yet must you be willing and obedient in applying the remedies prescribed you by Christ, and observing His directions in order to your cure. And you must not think that His remedy is too bitter, and that is too sharp; but trust His love, without any more ado. Say not, "It is grievous, and I cannot take it!" For He commands you nothing but what is safe, and wholesome, and necessary. If you cannot bear His remedy - think whether you can bear the fire of hell! Are humiliation, confession, restitution, mortification, and holy diligence worse than hell?
Directive 3 - See that you take not part with sin; and wrangle not, or strive not against your Physician, or any that would do you good. Excusing sin, and persisting in sin, and extenuating it, and striving against the Spirit and conscience, and wrangling against ministers and godly friends, and hating reproof - are not the means to be cured and sanctified.
Directive 4 - See that malignity in everyone of your particular sins - which you can see and say is in sin in general. It is a gross deceit of yourselves, if you will speak a great deal of the evil of sin, and see none of this malignity in your pride, and your worldliness, and your passion and peevishness, and your malice and uncharitableness, and your lying, backbiting, slandering, or sinning against conscience for worldly gain. What self-contradiction is it for a man in prayer to aggravate sin - and when he is reproved for it, to justify or excuse it! This is like him who will speak against treason, and the enemies of the king - but because the traitors are his friends and kindred, will protect, and hide and feed them.
Directive 5 - Keep as far as you can from those temptations which feed and strengthen the sins which you would overcome. Lay siege to your sins, and starve them out, by keeping away the food and fuel which is their maintenance and life.
Directive 6 - Live in the exercise of those graces and duties which are contrary to the sins which you are most in danger of. For grace and duty are contrary to sin, and kill it, and cure us of it - as heat cures us of cold, or health of sickness.
Directive 7 - Hearken not to weakening unbelief and distrust, and cast not away the comforts of God, which are your cordials and strength. It is not a frightful, dejected, despairing frame of mind - which is fittest to resist sin; but it is the encouraging sense of the lover of God, and thankful sense of grace received.
Directive 8 - Be always suspicious of carnal self-love, and watch against it. For that is the fortress of sin, and the common patron of it; ready to draw you to it, and ready to justify it. We are very prone to be partial to our own sins. Our own passions, our own pride, our own censures, or backbitings, or injurious dealings, our own neglects of duty - seem small, excusable, if not justifiable things to us. Whereas we could easily see the faultiness of all these in another, especially in an enemy. But we should be best acquainted with our own selves and sins - and therefore hate our own sins most.
Directive 9 - Bestow your first and chief labor to kill sins at the root. Cleanse the heart, which is the fountain; for out of the heart come the evils of the life. Know which are the master-roots; and expend your greatest care and industry to mortify these. They are especially these: 1. Ignorance. 2. Unbelief. 3. Inconsiderateness. 4.Selfishness and pride. 5. Fleshliness, in pleasing a brutish appetite, lust, or fantasy. 6. Senseless hard-heartedness and sleepiness in sin.
Directive 10 - Account the world and all its pleasures, wealth, and honors, no better than indeed they are, and then satan will find no bait to catch you. Esteem all as dung with Paul (Philippians 3:8). No man will sin and sell his soul - for that which he accounts but as dung.
Directive 11 - Take heed of the first approaches and beginnings of sin. Oh how great a matter does a little of this fire kindle! And if you fall, rise quickly by sound repentance, whatever it may cost you.
Directive 12 - Make God's Word your only rule and labor diligently to understand it.
Directive 13 - In doubtful cases be not passionate or rash, but proceed deliberately, and prove things well before you fasten on them.
Directive 14 - Wait patiently on Christ until He has finished the cure, which will not be until this trying life be finished. Persevere in attendance on His Spirit and means; for He will come in season, and will not tarry. "Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge Him. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to take us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth. (Hosea 6:3). Though you have often said, "There is no healing." (Jeremiah 14:19). "He will heal your backslidings, and love you freely." (Hosea 14:4). "Blessed are those who wait for Him" (Isaiah 30:18).
Thus I have given such directives as may help for humiliation under sin, or hatred of it, and deliverance from it.
~Richard Baxter~
(The End)
Saturday, April 28, 2018
Saturday, April 21, 2018
Classic Christian Authors # 1
Classic Christian Authors # 1
Later you will understand!
("Every Day!" Author unknown,)
"You do not realize now what I am doing--but later you will understand." John 13:7
Peter could not apprehend the design of our Lord in washing the disciples' feet, and impatiently expressed his surprise, "You shall never wash my feet!" Our gracious Savior in effect replied, "Wait a little, Peter--and you will see the reason for My doing so. You do not realize now what I am doing--but later you will understand."
How often are we impatient when we cannot at once see the design of the Lord's dealings with us. Sometimes, when events run contrary to our desires and expectations--we are ready, like Jacob, to say, "All these things are against me!" While in reality, none of them are against us--but all are, in a wonderful way, working together for our good.
Oh for more confidence in Him who, in infinite wisdom, is so ordering the circumstances of our lives as to promote our spiritual welfare here--and our eternal advantage in the world to come.
Even in the present life, the Lord sometimes shows us the meaning of His past dealings with us, and convinces us that when He was leading us in a rough path--He was leading us by the right way towards the city of habitation.
"Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain!
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain!"
________________________________
My times are in Your hand!
("Every Day!" Author unknown,)
"My times are in Your hand!" Psalm 31:15
Is not this truth a joy to you, my soul?
It would be a sorry thing for me if my times were in my own hands--and it would afford me little satisfaction if my times were in anangel's hands. How restful should I be in knowing that they are in Savior's nail-pierced hands!
He sees the end from the beginning.
He knows how to apportion my sorrows and my joys.
He knows what to give--and what to withhold.
He knows also when to give--and when to take away.
But, alas! how often is my heart mistrustful--how often have I murmured under the trying dispensations of His providence! O my soul, be ashamed and confounded--be humbled in the dust that you should ever call in question the wisdom or kindness of the dealings of Him who so loved you as to give His life for your redemption!
Help me, O God of my salvation, henceforth, with childlike confidence and peaceful trust--to yield all to You, and to rejoice in the assurance that "My times are in Your hand!"
"My times are in Your hand;
Why should I doubt or fear?
My Father's hand will never cause
His child a needless tear!"
______________________________
When we find the path thorny, and the journey toilsome!
("Every Day!" Author unknown,)
"They were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared acity for them." Hebrews 11:16
"Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come!" Hebrews 13:14
"Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city!" Revelation 22:14
God has prepared a city for His redeemed people. Towards that city we are ever journeying. And as we are but sojourners, as our citizenship is in Heaven--let us manifest the pilgrim spirit. While we thankfully use and enjoy the accommodations along the way, let it plainly appear that we do not regard this transient world as our home--but that our affections are set supremely on things which are above. Let it be manifest that we act from higher principles than those which govern the men of this poor world. May our companions, our pleasures, and our spirit plainly show that we are not of the earth--but that we are citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem.
As sojourners, let us patiently endure the trials of the way. If we are faithful witnesses for the Lord--we must expect the world's scorn. But like Moses, may we esteem reproach for Christ as greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. And when we find the path thorny, and the journey toilsome--let us remember that it is short, and that,
"Nightly we pitch our moving tent
A day's march nearer home!"
"Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims--abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul!" 1 Peter 2:11
_______________________________
Later you will understand!
("Every Day!" Author unknown,)
"You do not realize now what I am doing--but later you will understand." John 13:7
Peter could not apprehend the design of our Lord in washing the disciples' feet, and impatiently expressed his surprise, "You shall never wash my feet!" Our gracious Savior in effect replied, "Wait a little, Peter--and you will see the reason for My doing so. You do not realize now what I am doing--but later you will understand."
How often are we impatient when we cannot at once see the design of the Lord's dealings with us. Sometimes, when events run contrary to our desires and expectations--we are ready, like Jacob, to say, "All these things are against me!" While in reality, none of them are against us--but all are, in a wonderful way, working together for our good.
Oh for more confidence in Him who, in infinite wisdom, is so ordering the circumstances of our lives as to promote our spiritual welfare here--and our eternal advantage in the world to come.
Even in the present life, the Lord sometimes shows us the meaning of His past dealings with us, and convinces us that when He was leading us in a rough path--He was leading us by the right way towards the city of habitation.
"Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain!
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain!"
________________________________
My times are in Your hand!
("Every Day!" Author unknown,)
"My times are in Your hand!" Psalm 31:15
Is not this truth a joy to you, my soul?
It would be a sorry thing for me if my times were in my own hands--and it would afford me little satisfaction if my times were in anangel's hands. How restful should I be in knowing that they are in Savior's nail-pierced hands!
He sees the end from the beginning.
He knows how to apportion my sorrows and my joys.
He knows what to give--and what to withhold.
He knows also when to give--and when to take away.
But, alas! how often is my heart mistrustful--how often have I murmured under the trying dispensations of His providence! O my soul, be ashamed and confounded--be humbled in the dust that you should ever call in question the wisdom or kindness of the dealings of Him who so loved you as to give His life for your redemption!
Help me, O God of my salvation, henceforth, with childlike confidence and peaceful trust--to yield all to You, and to rejoice in the assurance that "My times are in Your hand!"
"My times are in Your hand;
Why should I doubt or fear?
My Father's hand will never cause
His child a needless tear!"
______________________________
When we find the path thorny, and the journey toilsome!
("Every Day!" Author unknown,)
"They were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared acity for them." Hebrews 11:16
"Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come!" Hebrews 13:14
"Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city!" Revelation 22:14
God has prepared a city for His redeemed people. Towards that city we are ever journeying. And as we are but sojourners, as our citizenship is in Heaven--let us manifest the pilgrim spirit. While we thankfully use and enjoy the accommodations along the way, let it plainly appear that we do not regard this transient world as our home--but that our affections are set supremely on things which are above. Let it be manifest that we act from higher principles than those which govern the men of this poor world. May our companions, our pleasures, and our spirit plainly show that we are not of the earth--but that we are citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem.
As sojourners, let us patiently endure the trials of the way. If we are faithful witnesses for the Lord--we must expect the world's scorn. But like Moses, may we esteem reproach for Christ as greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. And when we find the path thorny, and the journey toilsome--let us remember that it is short, and that,
"Nightly we pitch our moving tent
A day's march nearer home!"
"Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims--abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul!" 1 Peter 2:11
_______________________________
The searching, burning, purifying fires of Christ's furnace!
(Octavius Winslow, "Daily Need Divinely Supplied")
"He will sit as a Refiner and Purifier of silver--He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. " Malachi 3:3
(Octavius Winslow, "Daily Need Divinely Supplied")
"He will sit as a Refiner and Purifier of silver--He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. " Malachi 3:3
"I will refine them like silver and purify them like gold!" Zechariah 13:9
O my soul, what deep need is there for this refining and purifying of your Lord . . .
what inward corruption,
what carnality,
what worldliness,
what self-seeking,
what creature idolatry,
what God dishonoring unbelief!
All these imperatively demand the searching, burning, purifying fires of Christ's furnace!
My soul--your Refiner and Purifier is Jesus!
O my soul, what deep need is there for this refining and purifying of your Lord . . .
what inward corruption,
what carnality,
what worldliness,
what self-seeking,
what creature idolatry,
what God dishonoring unbelief!
All these imperatively demand the searching, burning, purifying fires of Christ's furnace!
My soul--your Refiner and Purifier is Jesus!
It is a consolatory thought that our refining is in the hands of Jesus--in the hands that were pierced for us on the cross!
Jesus shapes all your trials!
Jesus sends all your afflictions!
Jesus mixes all your sorrows!
Jesus shapes and balances all the clouds of your pilgrimage!
Jesus prepares and heats the furnace that refines you as silver and purifies you as gold!
Then, O my soul, tremble not . . .
at the knife that wounds you,
at the flame that scorches you,
at the cloud that shades you,
at the billows that surge above you.
Jesus is in it all--and you are as safe as though you had reached the blissful climate . . .
where the vine needs no pruning,
and where the ore needs no purifying,
where the sky is never darkened, and
upon whose golden sands where no storms of adversity ever blow, or waves of sorrow ever break.
Mark the Refiner's position. "He will SIT as a refiner and purifier of silver." It would be fatal to is purpose, if the human refiner were to leave his post while the liquid mass was seething in the cauldron. But there he patiently sits, watching and tempering the flame, and removing the refuse and the dross as it floats upon the surface of the molten ore.
Just so, Christ sits as a Refiner . . .
and with an eye that never slumbers,
and with a patience that never wearies,
and with a love that never chills,
and with a faithfulness that never falters,
He watches and controls the process that . . .
purifies our hearts,
burnishes our graces,
sanctifies our nature, and
impresses more vividly His own image of loveliness upon our soul.
If He places you in the fire, He will bring you through the fire, "that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."
But sweet and soothing is the truth that the believer is not alone in the fire! The Refiner is with us, as with the three Hebrew children passing through the king's burning furnace.
The Lord will have us be polished stones. As some believers are more rusty and some more alloyed than others--they need a rougher file, and a hotter furnace!
This may account for the great severity of trial through which some of the Lord's precious jewels are called to pass. Not less dear to His heart, are they for this refining.
Look up, my soul, to your Refiner!
The knife is in a Father's hand!
The flame is under a Savior's control!
Jesus sends all your afflictions!
Jesus mixes all your sorrows!
Jesus shapes and balances all the clouds of your pilgrimage!
Jesus prepares and heats the furnace that refines you as silver and purifies you as gold!
Then, O my soul, tremble not . . .
at the knife that wounds you,
at the flame that scorches you,
at the cloud that shades you,
at the billows that surge above you.
Jesus is in it all--and you are as safe as though you had reached the blissful climate . . .
where the vine needs no pruning,
and where the ore needs no purifying,
where the sky is never darkened, and
upon whose golden sands where no storms of adversity ever blow, or waves of sorrow ever break.
Mark the Refiner's position. "He will SIT as a refiner and purifier of silver." It would be fatal to is purpose, if the human refiner were to leave his post while the liquid mass was seething in the cauldron. But there he patiently sits, watching and tempering the flame, and removing the refuse and the dross as it floats upon the surface of the molten ore.
Just so, Christ sits as a Refiner . . .
and with an eye that never slumbers,
and with a patience that never wearies,
and with a love that never chills,
and with a faithfulness that never falters,
He watches and controls the process that . . .
purifies our hearts,
burnishes our graces,
sanctifies our nature, and
impresses more vividly His own image of loveliness upon our soul.
If He places you in the fire, He will bring you through the fire, "that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."
But sweet and soothing is the truth that the believer is not alone in the fire! The Refiner is with us, as with the three Hebrew children passing through the king's burning furnace.
The Lord will have us be polished stones. As some believers are more rusty and some more alloyed than others--they need a rougher file, and a hotter furnace!
This may account for the great severity of trial through which some of the Lord's precious jewels are called to pass. Not less dear to His heart, are they for this refining.
Look up, my soul, to your Refiner!
The knife is in a Father's hand!
The flame is under a Savior's control!
Be still, be humble, be submissive.
"Heed the rod--and the One who appointed it!" Micah 6:9
"I was silent; I would not open my mouth--for You are the one who has done this!" Psalm 39:9
Saturday, April 14, 2018
Directives for Hating Sin # 1
Directives for Hating Sin
Directive 1 - Labor to know God, and to be affected with His attributes and always to live a in His sight.
No man can know sin perfectly, because no man can know God perfectly. You can no further know what sin is than you know what God is, whom you sin against; for the malignity of sin is against the will and attributes of God. The godly have some knowledge of God who is wronged by it. The wicked have no practical knowledge of God who is wronged by it. The wicked have no practical knowledge of the malignity of sin, because they have no such knowledge of God. Those who fear God, will fear sinning. Those who in their hearts are bold irreverently with God, will, in heart and life, be bold with sin. The atheist, who thinks there is no God, thinks there is no sin against Him. Nothing in the world will tell us so plainly and powerfully of the evil of sin, as the knowledge of the greatness, wisdom, goodness, holiness, authority, justice, truth, etc., of God. The sense of His presence, therefore, will revive our sense of sin's malignity.
Directive 2 - Consider well of the office, the bloodshed, and the holy life of Christ.
His office is to expiate sin, and to destroy it. His blood was shed for it. His life condemned it. Love Christ, and you will hate that which caused His death. Love Him, and you will love to be made like Him, and hate that which is so contrary to Christ. These two great lights will show the odiousness of darkness.
Directive 3 - Think well both how holy the office and work of the Holy Spirit is, and how great a mercy it is to us.
Shall God Himself, the heavenly light, come down into a sinful heart, to illuminate and purify it? And yet shall I keep my darkness and defilement, in opposition to such wonderful mercy? Though all sin against the Holy Spirit be not the unpardonable blasphemy, yet all is aggravated hereby.
Directive 4 - Know and consider the wonderful love and mercy of God, and think what He has done for you; and you will hate sin, and be ashamed of it.
It is an aggravation which makes sin odious even to common reason and sincerity - that we should offend a God of infinite goodness, who has filled up our lives with mercy. It will grieve you if you have wronged an extraordinary friend: his love and kindness will come into your thoughts, and make you angry with your own unkindness. Here look over the catalogue of God's mercies to you, for soul and body. And here observe that satan, in hiding the love of God from you, and tempting you under pretense of humility to deny His greatest special mercy, seeks to destroy your repentance and humiliation, also, by hiding the greatest aggravation of your sin.
Directive 5 - Think what the soul of man is made for, and should be used for - even to love, obey, and glorify our Maker; and then you will see what sin is, which disables and perverts it.
How excellent, and high, and holy are we created for and called to! And should we defile the temple of God? And should we serve the devil in filthiness and folly - when we should receive, and serve, and magnify our Creator?
Directive 6 - Think well what pure and sweet delights a holy soul may enjoy from God, in His holy service; and then you will see what sin is, which robs him of these delights, and prefers fleshly lusts before them.
O how happily might we perform every duty, and how fruitfully might we serve our Lord, and what delight should we find in His love and acceptance, and the foresight of everlasting blessedness - if it were not for sin; which brings down the soul from the doors of heaven - to wallow with swine in the mire!
Directive 7 - Bethink you what life it is which you must live forever, if you live in heaven; and what a life the holy ones these now live; and then think whether sin, which is so contrary to it, be not a vile and hateful thing.
Either you would live in heaven, or not. If not, you are not those I speak to. If you would, you know that there is no sinning; no worldly mind, no pride, no fleshly lust or pleasures there. Oh, did you but see and hear one hour - how those blessed spirits are taken up in loving and magnifying the glorious God in purity and holiness, and how far they are from sin - it would make you loathe sin ever after, and look on sinners as insane men wallowing naked in their dung. Especially, to think that you hope yourselves to live forever like those holy spirits; and therefore hate all sin.
Directive 8 - Look but to the state and torment of the damned, and think of the difference between holy angels and devils, and you may know what sin is.
Angels are pure - devils are polluted; holiness and sin do make the difference. Sin dwells in hell - and holiness in heaven. Remember that every temptation is from the devil - to make you like himself. Likewise every holy motion is from Christ - to make you like Himself. Remember when you sin, that you are learning and imitating of the devil - and are so far like him. John 8:44. And the end of all is, that you may feel his pains. If hell-fire is not good - then sin is not good.
Directive 9 - Look always on sin as one who is ready to die, and consider how all men will judge of it at the last.
What do men in heaven say of sin? And what do men in hell say of it? And what do men at death say of it? And what do converted souls, or awakened consciences, say of it? Is it then followed with delight and fearlessness as it is now? Is it then applauded? Will any of them speak well of it? Nay, all the world speaks evil of sin in the general now, even when they love and commit it. Will you sin when you are dying?
Directive 10 - Look always on sin and judgment together.
Remember that you must answer for sin before God, and angels, and all the world; and you will the better know it.
Directive 11 - Look now but upon sickness, poverty, shame, despair, death, and rottenness in the grave - and it may a little help you to know what sin is.
There are things within your sight or feeling; you need not faith to tell you of them. And by such effects you have knowledge of the cause.
Directive 12 - Look but upon some eminent, holy people upon earth; and upon the mad, profane, malignant world; and the difference may tell you in part what sin is.
Is there not an amiableness in a holy, blameless person, who lives in love to God and man, and in the joyful hopes of life eternal? Is not a beastly drunkard or whoremonger, and a raging swearer, and a malicious persecutor - a very deformed, loathsome creature? Is not the mad, confused, ignorant, ungodly state of the world a very pitiful sight? What then is the sin, which all this consists of?
Though the principal part of the cure is in turning the will to the hatred of sin, and is done by this discovery of its malignity; yet I shall add a few more directives for the executive part, supposing that what is said already had had its effect.
~Richard Baxter~
(continued with # 2)
Directive 1 - Labor to know God, and to be affected with His attributes and always to live a in His sight.
No man can know sin perfectly, because no man can know God perfectly. You can no further know what sin is than you know what God is, whom you sin against; for the malignity of sin is against the will and attributes of God. The godly have some knowledge of God who is wronged by it. The wicked have no practical knowledge of God who is wronged by it. The wicked have no practical knowledge of the malignity of sin, because they have no such knowledge of God. Those who fear God, will fear sinning. Those who in their hearts are bold irreverently with God, will, in heart and life, be bold with sin. The atheist, who thinks there is no God, thinks there is no sin against Him. Nothing in the world will tell us so plainly and powerfully of the evil of sin, as the knowledge of the greatness, wisdom, goodness, holiness, authority, justice, truth, etc., of God. The sense of His presence, therefore, will revive our sense of sin's malignity.
Directive 2 - Consider well of the office, the bloodshed, and the holy life of Christ.
His office is to expiate sin, and to destroy it. His blood was shed for it. His life condemned it. Love Christ, and you will hate that which caused His death. Love Him, and you will love to be made like Him, and hate that which is so contrary to Christ. These two great lights will show the odiousness of darkness.
Directive 3 - Think well both how holy the office and work of the Holy Spirit is, and how great a mercy it is to us.
Shall God Himself, the heavenly light, come down into a sinful heart, to illuminate and purify it? And yet shall I keep my darkness and defilement, in opposition to such wonderful mercy? Though all sin against the Holy Spirit be not the unpardonable blasphemy, yet all is aggravated hereby.
Directive 4 - Know and consider the wonderful love and mercy of God, and think what He has done for you; and you will hate sin, and be ashamed of it.
It is an aggravation which makes sin odious even to common reason and sincerity - that we should offend a God of infinite goodness, who has filled up our lives with mercy. It will grieve you if you have wronged an extraordinary friend: his love and kindness will come into your thoughts, and make you angry with your own unkindness. Here look over the catalogue of God's mercies to you, for soul and body. And here observe that satan, in hiding the love of God from you, and tempting you under pretense of humility to deny His greatest special mercy, seeks to destroy your repentance and humiliation, also, by hiding the greatest aggravation of your sin.
Directive 5 - Think what the soul of man is made for, and should be used for - even to love, obey, and glorify our Maker; and then you will see what sin is, which disables and perverts it.
How excellent, and high, and holy are we created for and called to! And should we defile the temple of God? And should we serve the devil in filthiness and folly - when we should receive, and serve, and magnify our Creator?
Directive 6 - Think well what pure and sweet delights a holy soul may enjoy from God, in His holy service; and then you will see what sin is, which robs him of these delights, and prefers fleshly lusts before them.
O how happily might we perform every duty, and how fruitfully might we serve our Lord, and what delight should we find in His love and acceptance, and the foresight of everlasting blessedness - if it were not for sin; which brings down the soul from the doors of heaven - to wallow with swine in the mire!
Directive 7 - Bethink you what life it is which you must live forever, if you live in heaven; and what a life the holy ones these now live; and then think whether sin, which is so contrary to it, be not a vile and hateful thing.
Either you would live in heaven, or not. If not, you are not those I speak to. If you would, you know that there is no sinning; no worldly mind, no pride, no fleshly lust or pleasures there. Oh, did you but see and hear one hour - how those blessed spirits are taken up in loving and magnifying the glorious God in purity and holiness, and how far they are from sin - it would make you loathe sin ever after, and look on sinners as insane men wallowing naked in their dung. Especially, to think that you hope yourselves to live forever like those holy spirits; and therefore hate all sin.
Directive 8 - Look but to the state and torment of the damned, and think of the difference between holy angels and devils, and you may know what sin is.
Angels are pure - devils are polluted; holiness and sin do make the difference. Sin dwells in hell - and holiness in heaven. Remember that every temptation is from the devil - to make you like himself. Likewise every holy motion is from Christ - to make you like Himself. Remember when you sin, that you are learning and imitating of the devil - and are so far like him. John 8:44. And the end of all is, that you may feel his pains. If hell-fire is not good - then sin is not good.
Directive 9 - Look always on sin as one who is ready to die, and consider how all men will judge of it at the last.
What do men in heaven say of sin? And what do men in hell say of it? And what do men at death say of it? And what do converted souls, or awakened consciences, say of it? Is it then followed with delight and fearlessness as it is now? Is it then applauded? Will any of them speak well of it? Nay, all the world speaks evil of sin in the general now, even when they love and commit it. Will you sin when you are dying?
Directive 10 - Look always on sin and judgment together.
Remember that you must answer for sin before God, and angels, and all the world; and you will the better know it.
Directive 11 - Look now but upon sickness, poverty, shame, despair, death, and rottenness in the grave - and it may a little help you to know what sin is.
There are things within your sight or feeling; you need not faith to tell you of them. And by such effects you have knowledge of the cause.
Directive 12 - Look but upon some eminent, holy people upon earth; and upon the mad, profane, malignant world; and the difference may tell you in part what sin is.
Is there not an amiableness in a holy, blameless person, who lives in love to God and man, and in the joyful hopes of life eternal? Is not a beastly drunkard or whoremonger, and a raging swearer, and a malicious persecutor - a very deformed, loathsome creature? Is not the mad, confused, ignorant, ungodly state of the world a very pitiful sight? What then is the sin, which all this consists of?
Though the principal part of the cure is in turning the will to the hatred of sin, and is done by this discovery of its malignity; yet I shall add a few more directives for the executive part, supposing that what is said already had had its effect.
~Richard Baxter~
(continued with # 2)
Saturday, April 7, 2018
The One Indispensability For Our Humanity
The One Indispensability For Our Humanity
An oil lamp needs oil to produce light. Why? Because the lamp was made to function in that way. A car needs gasoline to go. Why? Because the car was made to function in that way.
Why does a human being need God to to be functional? Because we were made that way. Long ago, God decided to make a creature on this little planet called Earth. He specifically designed this creature as the means whereby His potential, His life, could be released and produce righteousness.
Man cannot produce righteousness on his own, however, any more than a car can go or an oil lamp can shine without fuel.
Trying to light an oil lamp with no oil is illogical and useless; you will remain in the dark. Trying to drive your car without gasoline is likewise utterly unreasonable; you will end up by getting out and pushing it, going only as far and as fast as your physical strength allows, and bringing yourself to exhaustion.
The same is true with human beings. Simply urging them to be good, telling them to draw from the depths of their personality, introducing them to behavioral science, trying to legislate their actions with rules, regulations, and religion, and threatening them with punishment or prison - ultimately none of these can succeed in producing righteousness from human beings.
To get light from an oil lamp, filling it first with oil is entirely reasonable. To get a car to provide you with transportation, filling the tank with gas is completely logical. In the same way, divine logic affirms that obtaining righteousness from a man or woman happens only when that person is filled with God. Oil in the lamp, gas in the car... and Christ in the Christian. It takes God to be a man, and that is why it takes Christ to be a Christian, because Christ puts God back into a man, the only way we can again become functional.
It is called the new birth, being born again, as our soul is awakened by God's Spirit. It can happen only on God's terms, and it restores us to that for which God created us - of being functional only by virtue of His presence within us. God is indispensable for the truly normal human being.
Man was created uniquely, in such a way that he can enjoy a moral relationship between the creature and his Creator, because God is love, and the only thing that satisfies love is to be loved. The only thing that satisfies friendship is to be befriended.
Love and friendship cannot be forced, however. If God wanted a man who could love Him back, that man could not be like any other creature, without any moral capacity either to please God or displease Him. Such a creature would be amoral,doing what it does because it must, rather than evidencing any disposition toward his Maker.
You and I, however, were so created that by anything and everything we do, we are saying to our Creator either "God, I love you," or "God, I could not care less."
The human spirit is that part of us where God lives within us in the person of the Holy Spirit, so that with our moral consent (and never without it), God gains access to our human soul. This is where He Himself, as the Creator within the creature, can teach our minds, control our emotions,and direct our wills, so that He, as God from within, governs our behavior as we let God be God.
"If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25), and this is what it means to walk in the Holy Spirit: to take one step at a time,and for every new situation into which every new step takes you, no matter what it may be, to hear Christ saying to your heart, "I AM," then to look up into His face by faith and say, "You are! That is all I need to know, Lord, and I thank You, for You are never less than adequate."
"The LORD is the strength of my life" (Psalm 17:1)
~W. Ian Thomas~
An oil lamp needs oil to produce light. Why? Because the lamp was made to function in that way. A car needs gasoline to go. Why? Because the car was made to function in that way.
Why does a human being need God to to be functional? Because we were made that way. Long ago, God decided to make a creature on this little planet called Earth. He specifically designed this creature as the means whereby His potential, His life, could be released and produce righteousness.
Man cannot produce righteousness on his own, however, any more than a car can go or an oil lamp can shine without fuel.
Trying to light an oil lamp with no oil is illogical and useless; you will remain in the dark. Trying to drive your car without gasoline is likewise utterly unreasonable; you will end up by getting out and pushing it, going only as far and as fast as your physical strength allows, and bringing yourself to exhaustion.
The same is true with human beings. Simply urging them to be good, telling them to draw from the depths of their personality, introducing them to behavioral science, trying to legislate their actions with rules, regulations, and religion, and threatening them with punishment or prison - ultimately none of these can succeed in producing righteousness from human beings.
To get light from an oil lamp, filling it first with oil is entirely reasonable. To get a car to provide you with transportation, filling the tank with gas is completely logical. In the same way, divine logic affirms that obtaining righteousness from a man or woman happens only when that person is filled with God. Oil in the lamp, gas in the car... and Christ in the Christian. It takes God to be a man, and that is why it takes Christ to be a Christian, because Christ puts God back into a man, the only way we can again become functional.
It is called the new birth, being born again, as our soul is awakened by God's Spirit. It can happen only on God's terms, and it restores us to that for which God created us - of being functional only by virtue of His presence within us. God is indispensable for the truly normal human being.
Man was created uniquely, in such a way that he can enjoy a moral relationship between the creature and his Creator, because God is love, and the only thing that satisfies love is to be loved. The only thing that satisfies friendship is to be befriended.
Love and friendship cannot be forced, however. If God wanted a man who could love Him back, that man could not be like any other creature, without any moral capacity either to please God or displease Him. Such a creature would be amoral,doing what it does because it must, rather than evidencing any disposition toward his Maker.
You and I, however, were so created that by anything and everything we do, we are saying to our Creator either "God, I love you," or "God, I could not care less."
The human spirit is that part of us where God lives within us in the person of the Holy Spirit, so that with our moral consent (and never without it), God gains access to our human soul. This is where He Himself, as the Creator within the creature, can teach our minds, control our emotions,and direct our wills, so that He, as God from within, governs our behavior as we let God be God.
"If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25), and this is what it means to walk in the Holy Spirit: to take one step at a time,and for every new situation into which every new step takes you, no matter what it may be, to hear Christ saying to your heart, "I AM," then to look up into His face by faith and say, "You are! That is all I need to know, Lord, and I thank You, for You are never less than adequate."
"The LORD is the strength of my life" (Psalm 17:1)
~W. Ian Thomas~
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