In my former treatise, O Theophilus, (“Theophilus” in the Greek means “a friend of God.), the gospel was presented as the “glad tidings,” or “good news” of what Christ has already done in His active and passive work on the cross. In the second treatise, the official stated doctrines of our fellowship of churches were simply stated. In this treatise, we shall attempt to apply the whole. Setting forth the gospel and the doctrine of Christianity without the application of these to a poor sinner would be to neglect a vital part for which the former two are designed. But, where to begin is difficult to determine. If we begin where Christian experience begins, it must be in the eternal love and decree of God from which it rises. But how deep is that sea of love! How wide is that topic! We shall spend eternity wondering at its vastness. So we will only “hint” at this and pass on.
As with Jeremiah, the same can be said of every sensible sinner, “The Lord hath appeared of old unto me saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: and with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” (Jeremiah 31:3.) It is from this everlasting love that God moved to save such wretched sinners. He said of Ephraim.” I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned; for Thou art my God. Surely after that I was turned, I REPENTED; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.” (Jeremiah 31: 18,19.) If one would look closely at the order and arrangement of this text, one should be able to see the Christian’s experience laid out consistent with what every quickened child of God has experienced. First, God moves upon the sinner, and following God’s chastening him, he desires that God turn him. It seems evident that such a soul is taught this early that he cannot turn himself from what he is by nature. So he begs God to turn him. He recognizes the effectual work of God’s Almighty power: “Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned!” There is no dispute here. If God turns a man, that man is turned! The reason he is turned is because the “Lord is my God.” God is GOD, and He surely can turn whomsoever He will.
But notice what follows next in the order. ”After that I was turned, I repented.” That is totally reversed from the order of man-made plans of salvation. But it is in perfect harmony with the New Testament that states it is, “godly sorrow that leads you to repentance.” Modern religions teach that if you would but repent, then God would turn you! But that, simply put, is contrary to experience. Since a man is born “dead in trespasses and sins,” he is unable to turn himself, and also unable to repent. But when God turns him he most certainly will repent, for repentance is God’s work too! “Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to GIVE repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” (Acts 5:31.) Again, on the report of Peter to the church at Antioch, the church rejoiced and “glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.” (Acts 11:18,) Paul rebuked natural men for “not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to REPENTANCE.” (Romans 2:4.) So with these Scriptures before us, let us turn to the experience of sensible sinners.
Are you then a feeling sinner? Has God chastened you so that you feel that you are a stubborn bull unaccustomed to the ox-yoke? You just cannot do good, but are condemned for not doing it? There is solid comfort here if the answers to these questions are “yes.” One of the earliest declarations of our Lord Jesus was this: “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to REPENTANCE.” (Matthew 9:13.)
Why would our Lord reject your sacrifices and gifts? Sacrifices were commanded under the law to Israel. The reason is to display His mercy. How is His mercy displayed? His mercy is displayed by calling sinners, rather than the self-righteous souls, to repentance. The Lord “delighteth in mercy.” It is one of His sweetest attributes, or characteristics. If He made salvation conditioned on either faith or repentance, then the “righteous” would have it by works. But no! Ten thousand times no! He made it a matter of His own sweet mercy! He does the chastening; He does the turning; He gives the results: repentance; and He does it to and for sinners! What solid comfort this is to a believing sinner. No wonder the saints love to sing of His free grace and mercy! While “repentance and remission of sins is to be preached unto all nations,’ it is never to be predicated on creature merit. Christ is the Savior of sinners; not repentance and faith. The above flow from God’s everlasting love and lovingkindness to sensible sinners.
The single prerequisite for all gospel benefits is spiritual life within an individual. Without life, one cannot believe. Without life, he cannot spiritually repent. Without life, he cannot know feelingly that he is a wretched, miserable, sinner. Without life, he cannot “hear the joyful sounds” of the gospel. Without life, he cannot mourn over his sins. Without life, he cannot see any real need for Christ. Without life, simple put, HE IS DEAD SPIRITUALLY. Life, then, must precede all these things “which accompany salvation.” And, from whence comes this life? Jesus said, “Ye must be born again.” (John 3:3.) Or, “Ye must be born from above” (center margin). As in John 1:13, “Which were born, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of GOD.” It makes perfectly good sense to an informed Christian. Your father and mother brought you into this world. They were “natural,” and so are you. Bovines (cows) have calves, but goats don’t. If you are ever to be spiritual, you must have a spiritual birth. Your Father must be spiritual. So you come into this spiritual life by a spiritual begetting and birth; and whoever begat you and brought you to spiritual life is your spiritual Father!
But of concern by many poor sinners is the question, “Am I His or am I not?” Is there any marks or evidences to which one may find comfort? Yes. Jesus said, “He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, HATH everlasting life.” (John 5:24.) That is good evidence. Notice that He did not say that if you believe that you would receive everlasting life. He said, “hath everlasting life.” He is showing one that he already has everlasting life if faith is in evidence. Faith did not produce the life; but the life produced the faith! “Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1.) Paul spent much of his time in the 7th chapter of Romans on this very subject. It is worth reading many times over. Are you alive, or are you dead? We showed the difference between those who are alive and those who are dead above. Into which category do you fall? Isn’t there comfort there for sensible sinners? Or, perhaps your comfort can be found here: “I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” Have you been there? Again, “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that I do.”
Has Paul described you yet? By his own experience, the fact that he did those things which he otherwise would not do, he had a witness that the law was good. But he also realized something else. If he was actually doing those things that he would not do, then something else was doing it. And that something else was “sin that dwelleth in me.” (Verse 20.) Are you with him yet? He explained it further, saying, “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me,” (Verse 21.) If he has reached your condition, then take comfort that these things give evidence of spiritual life dwelling within.
With the commencement of that spiritual life within one previously dead in trespasses and sins, there also begins a spiritual warfare. An evidence of spiritual life is a spiritual warfare, for those dead in trespasses and sins cannot have a spiritual warfare. Comfort can, then, be found in that experience, even though it may be a trying experience. ”For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” (Galatians 5:17.) Is this clashing experience in you? That would be good news indeed, for surely if the Spirit is not within one, that description would not fit him at all. This conflict is a mark of God’s living children.
We have presented the work of Christ for sinners, as well as the Father’s sovereign decree in salvation. When viewing the experimental work within the child of God, we are expressly concerned with the Holy Spirit’s work. Jesus promised the Spirit as a Comforter, saying, “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide WITH you forever, even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth WITH you, and shall be IN you.” (John 14: 16,17.) Now there is a contrast made here. The child of God has the Spirit of truth, whereas the world does not. We would not conclude that everyone with a head-knowledge of the five points of grace (Calvinism) is saved, but we can say that if they love and cherish such precious truth, then grace is dwelling within them.
The living child of God has an “infirmity” in praying. The world can say a pray at a ball game, beer joint, sick bed, or anywhere and at any time they wish. But the infirmity in prayer makes a child of God totally dependent upon God, even for his prayers. “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26,27.) In your experience, are you there? Is your prayer-life easy and at any time you wish? Or must you wait for an unction of the Spirit to indict your heart before God? Such individuals are “poor in spirit,” and our Lord promised that such were “blessed” already. Simply put, being poor in spirit is an evidence of one’s blessed state. Is that your present state? If so, then take comfort in it as the gospel to your soul.
Another good test of one’s sonship may be by looking within with the most basic and honest examination: What are my values? What are those things I really honestly prize deep within? Well, you might say, “I really prize righteousness, and as Lot, I am vexed daily by the unrighteousness of the wicked.” Well, how is that in God’s sight? “Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness. . .” (Matthew 5:6.) Is that what you are saying? Do you hunger and thirst after it? If you do, again, our Lord said you were “blessed” already. It too, simply put, is an evidence of one’s sonship. But the Lord’s answer should be of even more comfort. That is, “for they shall be filled.” You’ll never attain it in your flesh, or outer man, in this present life; but in the spiritual creature born within, that “inner man,” you have a perfect righteousness imputed to you by the faith of Christ Jesus. His righteousness is yours, and that by a free gift of God. That is as “full” of righteousness as one can be!
There is another precious work within God’s people that can be of comfort to a living, trembling, sinner. God’s people invariably mourn over their sinfulness. They are quick to condemn their evil thoughts, words, or deeds. This is one of the most cutting of their experiences. They are “dead to sin,” but find that sin is not dead within them. It confronts them daily, and is the most troubling experience to test their faith. Sin dwells within their flesh, and sin grieves their spirits without. Sin is ever present with them, which gives them no rest day or night.
Their rest can only be in Christ Jesus and His sustaining presence. They do, unlike the happy go lucky man-made “Christian,” mourn over their awful condition in the flesh. They long for full deliverance from its presence. But here, too, the Lord’s words are of great solace” “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4.) So again, simply put, mourning over sin is an evidence of one’s blessed state. It is from this condition that the Lord promised they would be comforted, for He is ever their strength and shield. He delights to help those who mourn, and in comforting them He proves His love for them.
So, dear, “Theophilus,” find your comfort in the Lord and the precious work of the Holy Spirit’s teaching within. There is your rest; and it is a “rest that remains for the people of God; and we do enter into that rest when we cease for our labor as He ceased for His.” May the eternal God graciously bless you and all His elect people you live among; and fellowship in the gospel of the free grace of God.
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