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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." |
