Where We Direct Our Allegiance
Our generation makes a great deal out of this, and we give it the name of "individualism." On the basis of our individuality, we claim the right of self-determination. In an airplane, the pilot who sits at the controls determines where that plane is going. He must determine the destination. Now, if God had made us humans to be mere machines, we would not have the power of self-determination. But since He made us in His own image and made us to be moral creatures, He has given us that power of self-determination. The poet Tennyson must have thought about this for he wrote in his "In Memoriam"; "Our wills are ours, we know not how; our wills are ours to make them Thine." Oh, this mystery of a man's free will is far too great for us! Tennyson said, "We know not how." But then he girds himself and continues, "Yes, our wills are ours to make them Thine." And that is the only right we have here to make our wills the wills of God, to make the will of God our will!
We must remember that God is Who He is, and we are what we are. God is the Sovereign and we are the creatures. He is the Creator and therefore He has a right to command us with the obligation that we should obey. It is a happy obligation, I might say, for His yoke is easy, and His burden is light" (Matt. 11:30).
Now, this is where I raise the point again of our human insistence that Christ may sustain a divided relationship toward us. This is now so commonly preached that to oppose it or object to it means that you are sticking your neck out and you had best be prepared for what comes. But how can we insist and teach that our Lord Jesus Christ can be our Saviour without being our Lord? How can we continue to teach that we can be saved without any thought of obedience to our Sovereign Lord"
I am satisfied that when man believes on Jesus Christ, he must believe on the whole Lord Jesus Christ - NOT making any reservation! I am satisfied that it is wrong to look upon Jesus as a kind of divine nurse to whom we can go when sin has made us sick, and after He has helped us, to say "Goodbye" - and go on our own way.
Suppose I slip into a hospital and tell the staff I need a blood transfusion or perhaps an X-ray of my gall bladder. After they have ministered to me and given their services, do I just slip out of the hospital again with a cheery "Goodbye" - as though I owe them nothing and it was kind of them to help me in my time of need? That may sound like a grotesque concept to you, but it does pretty well draw the picture of those who have been taught that they can use Jesus as Saviour in their time of need without owning Him as Sovereign and Lord and without owing Him obedience and allegiance.
Both Saviour and Lord
The Bible never in any way gives us such a concept of salvation. Nowhere are we ever led to believe that we can use Jesus as a Saviour and now own Him as our Lord. He is the Lord and as the Lord He saves us, because He has all of the offices of Saviour and Christ and High Priest and Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption!! He is all of these things and all of these are embodied in Him as Christ the Lord.
My brethren, we are not allowed to come to Jesus Christ as shrewd, clever-operators, "We will take this and this, but we won't take that!" We do not come to Him as one who, buying furniture for his house, declares: "I will take this table but I don't want that chair" - dividing it up! No, sir! It is either ALL of Christ or NONE of Christ! I believe we need to preach again a whole Christ to the world - a Christ who does NOT need our apologies, a Christ Who will NOT be divided, a Christ Who will either be Lord of all or Who will NOT be Lord at all!
I think it is important to agree that true salvation restores the right of a Creator-creature relationship because it acknowledges God's right to our fellowship and communion. You see, in our time we have over-emphasized the psychology of the sinner's condition. We spend much time describing the woe of the sinner, the grief of the sinner and the great burden he carries. He does have all of these, but we have over-emphasized them until we forget the principal fact - that the sinner is actually a rebel against properly constituted authority! That is what makes sin, sin. We are rebels! We are sons of disobedience. Sin is the breaking of the law and we are in rebellion and we are fugitives from the just laws of God while we are sinners.
By way of illustration, suppose a man escapes from prison. Certainly he will have grief. He is going to be in pain after bumping logs and stones and fences as he crawls and hides away in the dark. He is going to be hungry and cold and weary. His beard will grow long and he will be tired and cramped and cold - all of these will happen, but they are incidental to the fact that he is a fugitive from justice and a rebel against the law.
So it is with sinners. Certainly they are heartbroken and they carry a heavy load. Certainly they labor and are heave-laden. The Bible takes full account of these things; but they are incidental to the fact that the reason the sinner is what he is, is because he has rebelled against the law of God and he is a fugitive from divine judgment.
It is that which constitutes the nature of sin; not the fact that he carries a heavy load of misery and sadness and guilt. These things constitute only the outcropping of the sinful nature, but the root of sin is rebellion against God. Does not the sinner say: "I belong to myself - I owe allegiance to no one unless I choose to give it!" That is the essence of sin!
But thankfully, salvation reverses that and restores the former relationship so that the first thing the returning sinner do4es is to confess: "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before Thee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy son; make me as one of Thy hired servants" (Luke 15:18-19). Thus, in repentance, we reverse that relationship and we full submit to the Word of God and the Will of God - as obedient children.
Now that happiness of all the moral creatures lies right here, brethren, in the giving of obedience to God. The Psalmist cries out in Psalm 103:21, "Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of His, that do His pleasure." On the other hand, hell is certainly the world of disobedience. Everything else that may be said about hell may be true, but this one thing is the essence - hell is the world of the rebel! Hell is the Alcatraz for the unconstituted rebels who refuse to surrender to the will of God.
I thank God that heaven is the world of God's obedient children. Whatever else we may say of its pearly gates, its golden streets and its jasper walls, heaven is heaven because children of the Most High God find they are in their normal sphere as obedient moral beings. Jesus said there are fire and worms in hell, but that is not the reason it is hell. You might endure worms and fire, but for a moral creature to know and realize that he is where he is because he is a rebel - that is the essence of hell and judgment. It is the eternal world of all the disobedient rebels who have said, "I owe God nothing!"
This is the time given to decide. Each person makes his own decision as to the eternal world he is going to inhabit.
~A. W. Tozer~
(The End)
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
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Saturday, May 5, 2018
The Blessing of Dissatisfaction
The Blessing of Dissatisfaction
A young Christian girl sat in a room one beautiful summer afternoon. The sound of the birds chirping on the lawn and other noises of the outdoors came in through the open window to her. There was a look of melancholy upon her face, and her gaze rested steadily upon the floor. It was clear that she was troubled about something. Just then a minister entered the room. Noticing her forlorn appearance, he said cheerily, "What is the matter, young lady?"
She looked up at him and answered wearily, "O pastor, I am so dissatisfied."
"Well," he replied, "I am glad of it."
She almost gasped with astonishment, and exclaimed, "Why, pastor! What do you mean?"
He then sat down in a chair near her and explained to her the substance of what I am going to say to you.
We have all thought how good it is to be satisfied. How many times we have heard people testify and rejoice that they had reached this experience! I would not depreciate this sense of satisfaction, for out of it come many enjoyable things. It is a very pleasurable feeling and one that most people very earnestly desire. There are times, however, when such a feeling would be anything but a blessing. Perhaps this surprises you as it did the sister.
God has made provision to satisfy us. Christ said that he who would drink of the water of life would thirst no more - for it would be in him a well of water, and thus his thirst would be continually quenched. So there is a continual satisfaction in God. It is a good thing to be thus satisfied with God and His plans and ways and with our salvation - and dissatisfaction with any of these, if we are saved, is an evil to which we should not give place. But hardly any greater evil could come upon us than a complete and constant sense of satisfaction relating to our attainments in grace, the development of our spiritual powers, or the measures of our service to God.
Dissatisfaction is the mother of progress. The Chinese for centuries have been taught to be satisfied with having things like their fathers had. As a consequence they have almost entirely lost the inventive faculty. Long ago they were an inventive nation, but now as invention among them is a rarity. As long as people are satisfied - they are content to remain as they are.
Satisfaction is the foe to progress. As long as you are fully satisfied, you are like a sailing vessel in a dead calm. The sea about you may be very smooth. Everything may be very peaceful and serene. But all the time this calm prevails you are getting nowhere - you are at a standstill. It is only when the wind rises and the swells begin to move the vessel up and down and the sails begin to strain that good progress begins. You may feel very comfortable in your satisfaction. It may be very delightful and dreamy - but it may be dangerous also. Those who are fully satisfied for very long may be sure that there is need for an investigation. It is only when we become dissatisfied with present conditions and attainments, that we are spurred to effectual effort to make progress.
Suppose God had been satisfied with the world-conditions before Christ came. We would now have no Saviour and no salvation. He was dissatisfied, thoroughly dissatisfied, and so He made the greatest sacrifice that He could make to change existing conditions. Paul was once very well satisfied with his place in the Jewish religion - he was not looking for anything better. His dissatisfaction arose from the fact that some other people were not satisfied thus, but were finding and advocating something different. This aroused his severest condemnation. What he had was good enough for him - and ought to be good enough for them.
There are many today who are just like Paul was. They are fully contented in their present situation, and should anyone try to show them its insufficiency and the need of higher attainment, it would only arouse their opposition and indignation. That is why so many people oppose holiness. Just as soon as Paul saw Christ and the higher and better things for which Christ stood - he suddenly lost his satisfaction and became an earnest seeker for those better things. Sometimes it takes a rude shock to break through our self-satisfaction and to show us our true needs; but when it comes and arouses a dissatisfaction, it is truly a blessing.
Suppose Luther had been satisfied to continue in the Romish church, approving and submitting to her teaching and practises. Where might the world have been today? He became dissatisfied and gave voice to that dissatisfaction. Others heard and became dissatisfied. This dissatisfaction made their hearts hungry for God, and out of that heart-hunger came the Reformation.
Dissatisfaction has brought us a multitude of new things which we have to use and enjoy. It has been because men became dissatisfied with old methods and old implements and old ideas and customs and old attainments - that they have toiled in painful research, that they have labored night and day to invent new things. In some places, people still plow with a crooked stick and grind their four in hand-mills. What their fathers had, is good enough for them.
Some people are like that about religion. What their fathers had, is good enough for them, and they are indignant if we even suggest something better - they are satisfied. There are others who sought and obtained a new experience of forgiveness, but right there they stopped. Years have passed. They were satisfied when they were first saved; the only trouble was that they remained satisfied and never made any further progress. They can never be persuaded to press on in the Christian life. They go on from year to year and never make any real spiritual advancement. What is the trouble? Oh, they are just satisfied - that is all; and they will never get any further until their sleepy satisfaction is rudely broken in upon by something that startles them out of their security and awakens them to their needs. That will bring dissatisfaction, and that in time will set them to seeking to have those needs supplied.
Some people are content just to drift with the tides. They go along with the crowd, whichever way sentiment goes, and are quite content. They are no real moral force in their community or in the church. They are aware of the fact, and they seem to be satisfied to have it so. They will never amount to very much, so long as they are thus satisfied. Getting dissatisfied is the only thing that will ever make anything worth while of them.
There are those who know that they are less spiritual than they used to be - still, they are not much concerned about it. They are resting very easy. Such satisfaction is a curse! What such folks need is a good case of dissatisfaction; for that is the only thing that will keep them from drying up and withering away. I now of people who once had a glorious experience, but who for years have been so satisfied with themselves that they have not progressed an inch! Instead, they have gone backwards, with the result that today they are cold and formal. They are still satisfied, they still profess to be saved, but they amount to practically nothing for God or the church. There is no moral force radiating from their lives. To such persons the coming of dissatisfaction would be a great blessing. So long as they are satisfied with their present condition - so long they will be cold formalists.
Some people know that they are coming short of their duty and of their privileges in the Lord, but in spite of this they seem content and are making no effort - at least no effective effort - to do better. O brother, sister, if you are satisfied where you ought to be dissatisfied - it is time you awakened, it is time you looked toward better things until your hunger for them stirred you to action to obtain them.
To those who are dissatisfied, who realize your needs and lacks, I say - Do not be discouraged. God means by this very feeling of dissatisfaction with yourself, to spur you on to seek diligently for higher and better attainments. If you allow yourself to be discouraged, it will only hinder you. God will help you to obtain that which you need. Do not falter because your need seems great; God's supply is more abundant than your need. Cast off every weight. Press forward. God will help you. When once he has aroused you to effort - you will find Him ready to help. Your dissatisfaction is most encouraging. Press on until you obtain what you need. You will never attain your full measure of desire in this life - but you may obtain much, and what you do obtain will prepare you for that fullness and satisfaction which only eternity can bring you.
Dissatisfaction is never welcome- but it is a true friend. Through it you may reach blessed attainments and soul-enriching grace. Value it and use it rightly, and it will prove a great blessing, though it may often be a blessing in disguise!
~Charles Naylor~
(The End)
A young Christian girl sat in a room one beautiful summer afternoon. The sound of the birds chirping on the lawn and other noises of the outdoors came in through the open window to her. There was a look of melancholy upon her face, and her gaze rested steadily upon the floor. It was clear that she was troubled about something. Just then a minister entered the room. Noticing her forlorn appearance, he said cheerily, "What is the matter, young lady?"
She looked up at him and answered wearily, "O pastor, I am so dissatisfied."
"Well," he replied, "I am glad of it."
She almost gasped with astonishment, and exclaimed, "Why, pastor! What do you mean?"
He then sat down in a chair near her and explained to her the substance of what I am going to say to you.
We have all thought how good it is to be satisfied. How many times we have heard people testify and rejoice that they had reached this experience! I would not depreciate this sense of satisfaction, for out of it come many enjoyable things. It is a very pleasurable feeling and one that most people very earnestly desire. There are times, however, when such a feeling would be anything but a blessing. Perhaps this surprises you as it did the sister.
God has made provision to satisfy us. Christ said that he who would drink of the water of life would thirst no more - for it would be in him a well of water, and thus his thirst would be continually quenched. So there is a continual satisfaction in God. It is a good thing to be thus satisfied with God and His plans and ways and with our salvation - and dissatisfaction with any of these, if we are saved, is an evil to which we should not give place. But hardly any greater evil could come upon us than a complete and constant sense of satisfaction relating to our attainments in grace, the development of our spiritual powers, or the measures of our service to God.
Dissatisfaction is the mother of progress. The Chinese for centuries have been taught to be satisfied with having things like their fathers had. As a consequence they have almost entirely lost the inventive faculty. Long ago they were an inventive nation, but now as invention among them is a rarity. As long as people are satisfied - they are content to remain as they are.
Satisfaction is the foe to progress. As long as you are fully satisfied, you are like a sailing vessel in a dead calm. The sea about you may be very smooth. Everything may be very peaceful and serene. But all the time this calm prevails you are getting nowhere - you are at a standstill. It is only when the wind rises and the swells begin to move the vessel up and down and the sails begin to strain that good progress begins. You may feel very comfortable in your satisfaction. It may be very delightful and dreamy - but it may be dangerous also. Those who are fully satisfied for very long may be sure that there is need for an investigation. It is only when we become dissatisfied with present conditions and attainments, that we are spurred to effectual effort to make progress.
Suppose God had been satisfied with the world-conditions before Christ came. We would now have no Saviour and no salvation. He was dissatisfied, thoroughly dissatisfied, and so He made the greatest sacrifice that He could make to change existing conditions. Paul was once very well satisfied with his place in the Jewish religion - he was not looking for anything better. His dissatisfaction arose from the fact that some other people were not satisfied thus, but were finding and advocating something different. This aroused his severest condemnation. What he had was good enough for him - and ought to be good enough for them.
There are many today who are just like Paul was. They are fully contented in their present situation, and should anyone try to show them its insufficiency and the need of higher attainment, it would only arouse their opposition and indignation. That is why so many people oppose holiness. Just as soon as Paul saw Christ and the higher and better things for which Christ stood - he suddenly lost his satisfaction and became an earnest seeker for those better things. Sometimes it takes a rude shock to break through our self-satisfaction and to show us our true needs; but when it comes and arouses a dissatisfaction, it is truly a blessing.
Suppose Luther had been satisfied to continue in the Romish church, approving and submitting to her teaching and practises. Where might the world have been today? He became dissatisfied and gave voice to that dissatisfaction. Others heard and became dissatisfied. This dissatisfaction made their hearts hungry for God, and out of that heart-hunger came the Reformation.
Dissatisfaction has brought us a multitude of new things which we have to use and enjoy. It has been because men became dissatisfied with old methods and old implements and old ideas and customs and old attainments - that they have toiled in painful research, that they have labored night and day to invent new things. In some places, people still plow with a crooked stick and grind their four in hand-mills. What their fathers had, is good enough for them.
Some people are like that about religion. What their fathers had, is good enough for them, and they are indignant if we even suggest something better - they are satisfied. There are others who sought and obtained a new experience of forgiveness, but right there they stopped. Years have passed. They were satisfied when they were first saved; the only trouble was that they remained satisfied and never made any further progress. They can never be persuaded to press on in the Christian life. They go on from year to year and never make any real spiritual advancement. What is the trouble? Oh, they are just satisfied - that is all; and they will never get any further until their sleepy satisfaction is rudely broken in upon by something that startles them out of their security and awakens them to their needs. That will bring dissatisfaction, and that in time will set them to seeking to have those needs supplied.
Some people are content just to drift with the tides. They go along with the crowd, whichever way sentiment goes, and are quite content. They are no real moral force in their community or in the church. They are aware of the fact, and they seem to be satisfied to have it so. They will never amount to very much, so long as they are thus satisfied. Getting dissatisfied is the only thing that will ever make anything worth while of them.
There are those who know that they are less spiritual than they used to be - still, they are not much concerned about it. They are resting very easy. Such satisfaction is a curse! What such folks need is a good case of dissatisfaction; for that is the only thing that will keep them from drying up and withering away. I now of people who once had a glorious experience, but who for years have been so satisfied with themselves that they have not progressed an inch! Instead, they have gone backwards, with the result that today they are cold and formal. They are still satisfied, they still profess to be saved, but they amount to practically nothing for God or the church. There is no moral force radiating from their lives. To such persons the coming of dissatisfaction would be a great blessing. So long as they are satisfied with their present condition - so long they will be cold formalists.
Some people know that they are coming short of their duty and of their privileges in the Lord, but in spite of this they seem content and are making no effort - at least no effective effort - to do better. O brother, sister, if you are satisfied where you ought to be dissatisfied - it is time you awakened, it is time you looked toward better things until your hunger for them stirred you to action to obtain them.
To those who are dissatisfied, who realize your needs and lacks, I say - Do not be discouraged. God means by this very feeling of dissatisfaction with yourself, to spur you on to seek diligently for higher and better attainments. If you allow yourself to be discouraged, it will only hinder you. God will help you to obtain that which you need. Do not falter because your need seems great; God's supply is more abundant than your need. Cast off every weight. Press forward. God will help you. When once he has aroused you to effort - you will find Him ready to help. Your dissatisfaction is most encouraging. Press on until you obtain what you need. You will never attain your full measure of desire in this life - but you may obtain much, and what you do obtain will prepare you for that fullness and satisfaction which only eternity can bring you.
Dissatisfaction is never welcome- but it is a true friend. Through it you may reach blessed attainments and soul-enriching grace. Value it and use it rightly, and it will prove a great blessing, though it may often be a blessing in disguise!
~Charles Naylor~
(The End)
Saturday, April 28, 2018
Directives for Hating Sin # 2
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)
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 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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