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Hope
Unlimited
Chapter
5: 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 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. 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
dragon-like
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 [being considered righteous] without sanctification
[being made righteous] would not be
salvation at all. It would call the leper clean, and leave him to
die of his disease; it 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. "You know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins."
(1 John 3:5)
The
angel said of our Lord, "You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will 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 there came out blood and water, signifying the
double cure by which we are delivered from sin - the blood to wash
away our guilt, the water to wash away our 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 the word of God. God, who cannot lie, has said in
Ezekiel:
"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." (Eze 36:26)
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
rest their hopes in God's promises. 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." (Eze
11:19)
What
a wonderful promise! 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. 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 - "You 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 for 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 that which
is 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, 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 marvelous 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 promises. 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
marvelous 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.
For
a practical study on the subject of the changed heart, the reader is
referred to the feature "A Brand New You."
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