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.
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.
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