CONCERNING DELIVERANCE FROM SINNING
IN THIS PLACE I would say a plain word or two to those who
understand the method of justification by faith which is in
Christ Jesus, but whose trouble is that they cannot cease from
sin. We can never be happy, restful, or spiritually healthy till
we become holy. We must be rid of sin; but how is the riddance to
be wrought? This is the life-or-death question of many. The old
nature is very strong, and they have tried to curb and tame it;
but it will not be subdued, and they find themselves, though
anxious to be better, if anything growing worse than before. The
heart is so hard, the will is so obstinate, the passions are so
furious, the thoughts are so volatile, the imagination is so
ungovernable, the desires are so wild, that the man feels that he
has a den of wild beasts within him, which will eat him up sooner
than be ruled by him. We may say of our fallen nature what the
Lord said to Job concerning Leviathan: "Wilt thou play with him
as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?" A man
might as well hope to hold the north wind in the hollow of his
hand as expect to control by his own strength those boisterous
powers which dwell within his fallen nature. This is a greater
feat than any of the fabled labors of Hercules: God is wanted
here.
"I could believe that Jesus would forgive sin," says one,
"but then my trouble is that I sin again, and that I feel such
awful tendencies to evil within me. As surely as a stone, if it
be flung up into the air, soon comes down again to the ground, so
do I, though I am sent up to heaven by earnest preaching, return
again to my insensible state. Alas! I am easily fascinated with
the basilisk eyes of sin, and am thus held as under a spell, so
that I cannot escape from my own folly."
Dear friend, salvation would be a sadly incomplete affair if
it did not deal with this part of our ruined estate. We want to
be purified as well as pardoned. Justification without
sanctification would not be salvation at all. It would call the
leper clean, and leave him to die of his disease; if would
forgive the rebellion and allow the rebel to remain an enemy to
his king. It would remove the consequences but overlook the
cause, and this would leave an endless and hopeless task before
us. It would stop the stream for a time, but leave an open
fountain of defilement, which would sooner or later break forth
with increased power. Remember that the Lord Jesus came to take
away sin in three ways; He came to remove the penalty of sin, the
power of sin, and, at last, the presence of sin. At once you may
reach to the second part--the power of sin may immediately be
broken; and so you will be on the road to the third, namely, the
removal of the presence of sin. "We know that he was manifested
to take away our sins."
The angel said of our Lord, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins." Our Lord Jesus
came to destroy in us the works of the devil. That which was said
at our Lord's birth was also declared in His death; for when the
soldier pierced His side forthwith came there out blood and
water, to set forth the double cure by which we are delivered
from the guilt and the defilement of sin.
If, however, you are troubled about the power of sin, and
about the tendencies of your nature, as you well may be, here is
a promise for you. Have faith in it, for it stands in that
covenant of grace which is ordered in all things and sure. God,
who cannot lie, has said in Ezekiel 36:26:
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I
put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your
flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
You see, it is all "I will," and "I will." "I will give,"
and "I will take away." This is the royal style of the King of
kings, who is able to accomplish all His will. No word of His
shall ever fall to the ground.
The Lord knows right well that you cannot change your own
heart, and cannot cleanse your own nature; but He also knows that
He can do both. He can cause the Ethiopian to change his skin,
and the leopard his spots. Hear this, and be astonished: He can
create you a second time; He can cause you to be born again. This
is a miracle of grace, but the Holy Ghost will perform it. It
would be a very wonderful thing if one could stand at the foot of
the Niagara Falls, and could speak a word which should make the
river Niagara begin to run up stream, and leap up that great
precipice over which it now rolls in stupendous force. Nothing
but the power of God could achieve that marvel; but that would be
more than a fit parallel to what would take place if the course
of your nature were altogether reversed. All things are possible
with God. He can reverse the direction of your desires and the
current of your life, and instead of going downward from God, He
can make your whole being tend upward toward God. That is, in
fact, what the Lord has promised to do for all who are in the
covenant; and we know from Scripture that all believers are in
the covenant. Let me read the words again:
A new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the
stony heart out of your flesh, and will give an heart of flesh.
(Ezekiel 11:19).
What a wonderful promise! And it is yea and amen in Christ
Jesus to the glory of God by us. Let us lay hold of it; accept it
as true, and appropriate it to ourselves. Then shall it be
fulfilled in us, and we shall have, in after days and years, to
sing of that wondrous change which the sovereign grace of God has
wrought in us.
It is well worthy of consideration that when the Lord takes
away the stony heart, that deed is done; and when that is once
done, no known power can ever take away that new heart which He
gives, and that right spirit which He puts within us. "The gifts
and calling of God are without repentance"; that is, without
repentance on His part; He does not take away what He once has
given. Let Him renew you and you will be renewed. Man's
reformations and cleanings up soon come to an end, for the dog
returns to his vomit; but when God puts a new heart into us, the
new heart is there forever, and never will it harden into stone
again. He who made it flesh will keep it so. Herein we may
rejoice and be glad forever in that which God creates in the
kingdom of His grace.
To put the matter very simply--did you ever hear of Mr.
Rowland Hill's illustration of the cat and the sow? I will give
it in my own fashion, to illustrate our Saviour's expressive
words--"Ye must be born again." Do you see that cat? What a
cleanly creature she is! How cleverly she washes herself with her
tongue and her paws! It is quite a pretty sight! Did you ever see
a sow do that? No, you never did. It is contrary to its nature.
It prefers to wallow in the mire. Go and teach a sow to wash
itself, and see how little success you would gain. It would be a
great sanitary improvement if swine would be clean. Teach them to
wash and clean themselves as the cat has been doing! Useless
task. You may by force wash that sow, but it hastens to the mire,
and is soon as foul as ever. The only way in which you can get a
sow to wash itself is to transform it into a cat; then it will
wash and be clean, but not till then! Suppose that transformation
to be accomplished, and then what was difficult or impossible is
easy enough; the swine will henceforth be fit for your parlor and
your hearth-rug. So it is with an ungodly man; you cannot force
him to do what a renewed man does most willingly; you may teach
him, and set him a good example, but he cannot learn the art of
holiness, for he has no mind to it; his nature leads him another
way. When the Lord makes a new man of him, then all things wear a
different aspect. So great is this change, that I once heard a
convert say, "Either all the world is changed, or else I am." The
new nature follows after right as naturally as the old nature
wanders after wrong. What a blessing to receive such a nature!
Only the Holy Ghost can give it.
Did it ever strike you what a wonderful thing it is for the
Lord to give a new heart and a right spirit to a man? You have
seen a lobster, perhaps, which has fought with another lobster,
and lost one of its claws, and a new claw has grown. That is a
remarkable thing; but it is a much more astounding fact that a
man should have a new heart given to him. This, indeed, is a
miracle beyond the powers of nature. There is a tree. If you cut
off one of its limbs, another one may grow in its place; but can
you change the tree; can you sweeten sour sap; can you make the
thorn bear figs? You can graft something better into it and that
is the analogy which nature gives us of the work of grace; but
absolutely to change the vital sap of the tree would be a miracle
indeed. Such a prodigy and mystery of power God works in all who
believe in Jesus.
If you yield yourself up to His divine working, the Lord
will alter your nature; He will subdue the old nature, and
breathe new life into you. Put your trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and He will take the stony heart out of your flesh, and
He will give you a heart of flesh. Where everything was hard,
everything shall be tender; where everything was vicious,
everything shall be virtuous: where everything tended downward,
everything shall rise upward with impetuous force. The lion of
anger shall give place to the lamb of meekness; the raven of
uncleanness shall fly before the dove of purity; the vile serpent
of deceit shall be trodden under the heel of truth.
I have seen with my own eyes such marvellous changes of
moral and spiritual character that I despair of none. I could, if
it were fitting, point out those who were once unchaste women who
are now pure as the driven snow, and blaspheming men who now
delight all around them by their intense devotion. Thieves are
made honest, drunkards sober, liars truthful, and scoffers
zealous. Wherever the grace of God has appeared to a man it has
trained him to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil world: and,
dear reader, it will do the same for you.
"I cannot make this change," says one. Who said you could?
The Scripture which we have quoted speaks not of what man will
do, but of what God will do. It is God's promise, and it is for
Him to fulfill His own engagements. Trust in Him to fulfill His
Word to you, and it will be done.
"But how is it to be done?" What business is that of yours?
Must the Lord explain His methods before you will believe him?
The Lord's working in this matter is a great mystery: the Holy
Ghost performs it. He who made the promise has the responsibility
of keeping the promise, and He is equal to the occasion. God, who
promises this marvellous change, will assuredly carry it out in
all who receive Jesus, for to all such He gives power to become
the Sons of God. Oh that you would believe it! Oh that you would
do the gracious Lord the justice to believe that He can and will
do this for you, great miracle though it will be! Oh that you
would believe that God cannot lie! Oh that you would trust Him
for a new heart, and a right spirit, for He can give them to you!
May the Lord give you faith in His promise, faith in His Son,
faith in the Holy Spirit, and faith in Him, and to Him shall be
praise and honor and glory forever and ever! Amen.
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