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Fourth in a Series on "The Holy Spirit in the Life of the Believer99 of climate and of circumstances and of companionship, you would be all right. But you would not, for the chief article of luggage that you will carry along with you will be that old capital “I,” and it is only that old self that can ever rob any Christian of his peace, of his rest, and of his joy. We do not like to blame ourselves for our sin. I be lieve what Moody said, "Maybe we are bla|ning the devil for a lot of things that we, ourselves, are to blame for.” We have no excuse ror failure and defeat, no matter what our circum stances are, for we who are hid with Christ in God have a double security. We have the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ covering us, and we have God the Holy Spirit living within us. And the devil cannot touch you and me un less we let him, unless we give him place. The only way he can get place in you and me is through the flesh. We have been taken out of the sphere of the flesh, but the flesh is still in us. We have the fifth column in us; Satan lays hold of that fifth column, and he cannot get hold in any other way. Oh, if we would only believe that! But that brings the blame too close home, and we do not like to blame ourselves for our un- splritual condition. It is so much easier to blame some one else, or to place the blame on the devil. If we were only willing to take God’s Word as to where the blame lies and then take His way of deliverance! only fits and equips one to live in the sphere of Satan, in the world, and in the flesh. That old nature cannot know God, it cannot obey God, and it cannot please God. With only that old nature, it would be impossible for a sinner to enter into the kingdom of God, and even if it were possible for him to enter into that king dom, heaven would be hell to him. In heaven as on earth, he would hate what God loves and love, what God hates. “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be bom again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). “That which is bom of the flesh is flesh” (v. 6), and .it can never be anything else. It may be educated flesh, it may be cul tured flesh, it may be moral flesh, it may even be religious flesh, but it is still flesh and never can inherit the kingdom of God. And thus, “ye must be bom again.” The believer in Christ is bom of the Spirit. He becomes the possessor of a new nature that is both sinless and divine. It is a nature thaj; loves what God loves and hates what God hates. Usually we think that the nature of God is only a loving nature and we for get that there are some things that God hates. So there will be some things which we hate. We should hate the flesh. We should hate it as being that thing in us that loves the devil and loves the things of the devil and the things of the world and hates Christ and the things of Christ. In the Old Testament, God once used the very strong word “loathe.” We are to loathe that old self, that old "I.” Now we do hate it in the other fellow, but do we loathe it in ourselves? The New Nature in Operation The new nature fits and equips us to live as saints, in Christ, in the Church, and in the Spirit. It is a nature that can and does know God and obey God and please God. It is divine, heavenly, spiritual, and supernatural; and it fully equips us for life in the kingdom of God. “Except a man be bom of water and of tlie Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). To be bom again means that there is a new beginning, a new birth, not reformation nor renovation nor repair of anything in the old creation. Even God does not attempt to do that. He has but one place for that old creation, and that is on the Cross, and He has but one plan for our deliverance from it, , and that is through our co-crucifixion with the Lord Jesus Christ. Through the blood of the Saviour and through regeneration there is a replacement of that old creation by a totally new cre ation.
First, how can we be in a right and full adjustment to the Holy Spirit? In Christ we have life, and in the Holy Spirit we have the Giver of that life. The Holy Spirit’s work with the sinner Is to convict of sin, and the greatest sin of which He convicts one is the sin of unbelief which leads to the rejection of Christ as Saviour. His second work is to constrain the sinner to see in that Saviour the Saviour he needs so that he will receive Him, instead of reject ing Him. “And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me” (John 16:8, 9). The Holy Spirit reveals Christ as Saviour. The sinner may re sist the light and reject the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, but, on the other hand, he may respond to the Spirit’s work and turn from sin, and in faith receive the Saviour. New Love and New Hatred Secondly, after having been convicted and convinced of his need of Christ, the believing sinner is bom o f , the Spirit. The sinner in Adam is bom of the flesh. He is the possessor of only one nature, and it is both sinful and hostile to God. That old, sinful, hostile nature loves what God hates and hates what God loves. Consequently, it is a nature that
There is the beginning of a new life with a new nature. The new birth is, first, the implantation of a new life. “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is' in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5: 11, 12). If there is any one reading these lines who has not the Son, he has not this new life, and he cannot have it apart from the Son. The believer be comes the possessor of the life of the Son, which life is divine, heavenly, spiritual, and supernatural. I mention those qualities because they should tell you and me the kind of life we should be living. We should be living a life that is divine, because it is Christ living out His life in us, a heavenly life even while we live down here on earth, a life that is spiritual and supernatural be cause the Holy Spirit indwells us. We should be living a life that the people around about us cannot account for ex cept on the ground of the supernatural. Are we living that kind of life? Unless we are, I truly believe we can seriously doubt whether we comprehend what the new birth is. Then there is the impartation of a new nature: “That . . . ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having [ Continued on Page 235]
Moment by Moment There is no such thing as a once- for-all fullness; it is a continuous ap propriation of a continuous supply from Jesus Christ Himself: a moment- by-moment faith in a moment-by-mo ment Saviour, for a moment-by-moment cleansing, and a moment-by-moment filling. As I trust Him, He fills me; so long as I trust Him, He fills me; the moment I begin to believe, that moment I begin to receive; and so long as I keep believing, praise the Lord! so long I keep receiving. — CHARLES INWOOD, quoted in “The Holy Spirit of Promise.”
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