All efforts after holiness and holy self-control apart from the cross will end in proud self-righteousness or in a paralysing sense of failure. The sin-killing power of the Savior's death--would that we adequately knew and felt and exemplified it. This cross, this Glorious Death is the Power of God unto a full salvation, not just from condemnation, but also from the domination of sin. Through His vicarious righteousness, purchased for us at such an immeasurable cost, The Holy Spirit comes. To achieve the Sacrifices intent and purpose, the Spirit comes. And when He comes, He wields on his peoples' souls the virtue and energy of Christ's death and resurrection. He writes it on the fleshy tables of their hearts. Live by faith upon the firm belief that all that needs to be done, all that could be done, has been done in this glorious awful cross upon which our Blessed Savior died. "That I may know Him, and the power of His Resurrection, being made conformable unto His death. It is thus that we will have our heart plagues more and more cured and our besetting sins crucified, till at last we are through the infinite power of Emmanuel's blood and Spirit, holy, harmless, and undefiled, and separate from sinners, without spot or plague or any such thing
Finally, I must focus our attention on the truth that it is by the believing use of the cross that you are to slay your corruptions or cure your heart plagues. In proportion as we wander from our Lord's cross and our death in Him, our besetting sins will revive. Our right and adequate return to abiding in our Lords' death and our sins with Him, weakens, mortifies, and kills them. all sanctification is from participating in the power of the cross. (Romans 6) It is from communion in the death and resurrection of Christ. It is being made conformable unto His death. If we are to make progress in putting off the deeds of the flesh, putting to death the old man, it must be by making His Death yours!!! Humiliation and holiness can be found by a sinner nowhere but at the cross. He loved us and gave Himself for us that He might cleanse us with the washing of the water of the word. His Work is the assurance that sin shall not have dominion over us. Believe it!!! His name is called Jesus because He is to save His people from, out of their sins.
All efforts after holiness and holy self-control apart from the cross will end in proud self-righteousness or in a paralysing sense of failure. The sin-killing power of the Savior's death--would that we adequately knew and felt and exemplified it. This cross, this Glorious Death is the Power of God unto a full salvation, not just from condemnation, but also from the domination of sin. Through His vicarious righteousness, purchased for us at such an immeasurable cost, The Holy Spirit comes. To achieve the Sacrifices intent and purpose, the Spirit comes. And when He comes, He wields on his peoples' souls the virtue and energy of Christ's death and resurrection. He writes it on the fleshy tables of their hearts. Live by faith upon the firm belief that all that needs to be done, all that could be done, has been done in this glorious awful cross upon which our Blessed Savior died. "That I may know Him, and the power of His Resurrection, being made conformable unto His death. It is thus that we will have our heart plagues more and more cured and our besetting sins crucified, till at last we are through the infinite power of Emmanuel's blood and Spirit, holy, harmless, and undefiled, and separate from sinners, without spot or plague or any such thing
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If we would cure our heart plagues, we must remember that all our success is from the Holy Spirit--"If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." It is the Spirit that is the real agent in all successful action against beloved sins and idols. The whole work of sanctification and especially this particular department of it are His.
1. In the first place, it is to Him that we are indebted for a true view of the evil, the hatefulness, the damage of the sinfulness of these plagues. It is His function to convince of sin, and righteousness, and judgement, (John 16:8-11) and when He is come, He will fulfill His Office. He will tear away every veil and mask which hides from view the cancer of our heart plague. He will correct all our false judgements. He will show us the damage of the disease on our relation to God and our whole spiritual life and future. Our soul's real condition and interests, the Spirit makes plain before us. 2. Secondly, He withdraws us from the first covenant and brings us under the second.(Galatians 3:1-6) As we are prone to slip back under the law of works and its legalism and guilt, as through unbelief we are apt to do, the Spirit leads us forth again into the covenant of grace in fresh renewed actings of simple faith. All His saving, sanctifying work is within the compass of rule of the Gracious covenant. The gracious gospel and not the law is the chariot in which the saving Spirit of God goes forth in glory. The everlasting covenant, not the broken covenant, is the vehicle of His saving grace and power. 3. In the third place, it is the Spirit alone Who renews the heart and gives truth in the inward parts. He searches and humbles and cleanses us. He puts the law in our hearts and writes it in our mind. He writes it all and He writes it correctly! He teaches us to judge ourselves in the judgement of God. He proceeds further and renews in us a positive success. He leads us to pray for the healing balm that is in Gilead. He helps our infirmities. He reveals to us the great Physician in all His fitness and fulness to heal and cure us. He especially brings into our clear view the infinite grace of the High Priest that can have compassion. He shows us that so long as a heart plague really plagues us, so far from condemning us because of the spiritual evil it implies, the pain we suffer from it renders us the focus of the High Priest's special care and love and gives us a special interest in that intercession that pours out upon us all needed supplies of saving, sanctifying, healing Grace. For all this you are indebted to the Holy Spirit. Oh, then, take no step in this work without Him. Through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body and be healed of the plagues of the heart. Ever remember that justification goes before sanctification, both in doctrine and experience and consciousness! The unjustified man has no claim on God for sanctifying grace. It is as being under no condemnation that we will walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1) Our entire redemption is a redemption both by price and by power. But it is as redeemed by price that we have any right and title or claim to obtain the power to resist our enemies. It is not as a criminal, either really so or consciously so, it is not as an apostate, and outcast, an alien that you can receive grace and strength from God. It can only be as a friend, a son, justified freely and adopted in the Beloved. The entire restoration of our relationship to God must precede the restoration of your heart. (Note: And a belief in and an awareness of that restoration in Christ Jesus!!!. RF)
Now this leads you into growing gratitude and praise for a free justification, a free reconciliation, a free adoption. With all the plagues of my heart-notwithstanding them all, burdened and blackened with them all-I am free as a sinner, by faith alone, without one single qualification or good thing to show, to accept Christ, to enter into Christ and stand steadfast in Him, God's righteous Servant, God's Beloved Son. Sharing this position with Him, sharing His relation to God, in Him and with Him, righteous and a son, justified and adopted, I am also counted God's righteous servant, and beloved son, with all my Holy Sovereign's approval resting on me and all my Heavenly Father's Love. It is from this position, with all its glorious securities and immunities, all its privileges, all its hopes and prospects, I am placed in circumstances now to wage a hopeful, healthful, victorious war with all my plagues, and sins, and foes. When we, by faith, abide in Christ, sharing His position and drawing on His Grace, we then act in His Authority and by His power. In a word, we then act in His name, as one with Him. |
AuthorWhile I have been a pastor and Christian bookstore owner for 30 years, my only credentials are that of an old saint who followed his signature with S.S., Sinner Saved! Archives
December 2023
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