BLJ: Today's reading has some testimonies from leading saints and Christian workers. What is your testimony? These people were not afraid to honestly look at their hearts. This is a requirement to be sanctified wholly. There is a positive and negative to entire sanctification. The negative is the removal of the old man. The positive is the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
GOD CONVICTS BELIEVERS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF THE OLD MAN
GOD CONVICTS BELIEVERS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF THE OLD MAN
From the study of the previous, we find that the Bible and experience teach that the old man exists, or lives, or abides in the heart of the believer. As the old man is enmity against God, as his workings are contrary to perfect love, a holy God could not do otherwise than convict one who has carnality in his heart.
"Inbred sin is the secret, subtle life of self -- it is so deep in the soul, it requires great searchings of light and truth to reveal it."
"It is as a hidden 'root of gall, wormwood, bitterness,' which is liable to spring up in God's people and defile them."
"Sin in the soul is a morally and spiritually debilitating thing. It is like a hidden disease in the body, warring against the vitality by its strength. Sin in any degree remaining in the heart is a consumption devouring spiritual vigor. It is a devastating starvation process.
"Your life may be blameless in its outer form, and yet you may mourn over this felt impurity of your heart."
"Depravity is a poisonous seed hidden deep in the soul-soil, ever ready to expand itself into the flower and fruit of open transgression."
"Inbred sin is not merely a weakness or lack of good, but a positive soul-poison -- the essence of deceit and sin."
We submit a few testimonies from leading saints and Christian workers.
"I hated pride, ambition, evil tempers, and vain thoughts, but I had them for all that, and they were part of me . . . . I longed for a clean heart and constant spirit . . . . Selfishness, pride, and prejudice joined forces and rose in rebellion, while the 'old man' pleaded for his life. But I could not, would not draw back."
"My prayer was 'Search me, O God, and know my heart.' God heard and answered. The searchlight was turned on. My! My! what revelations! Every room from garret to cellar was examined, and we were astonished to find things and principles that ought not to be there. How the 'old man of sin' did SQUIRM and WRITHE under the light and fire!"
"I was converted and knew it, loved God and His people, saw souls converted, and grew in experience; but my temper, which was quick, often made me conscious that I was not possessed of all the mind of Christ. I was hampered by selfish ambitions, joking and teasing tendencies, and other movements of the carnal mind."
"I am a ground all overrun with thorns."
"I am vile; I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."
"Let me sink with you before the throne of grace, and while the cherubim veil their faces, and cry out in tender, exquisite trembling, 'Holy! holy! holy!' let us put our mouths in the dust and echo back the solemn sound, 'Holy! holy! holy!'
"I found many hindrances, especially a very bad temper. I began to feel an aching void in my soul."
"My heart was ill at ease. It was not my outward walk that caused me sorrow. My heart troubled me, roots of bitterness, coldness, want of a meek and quiet spirit. At times I went through agonies of conflicts in my efforts to bring about a different state of things."
"When I was convicted for holiness, I was in a clearly justified state. When I was converted, it was conviction of guilt; now it was the conviction of want. When I read, 'Rejoice when men persecute you,' I felt that was not my experience; there was a feeling of retaliation. And when they spoke about me, and blamed me, I wanted to justify myself instead of leaving it all with God."
"During this period, I was convicted of remaining corruption in my heart, and of the need of purity. I was often conscious of deep-rooted, inward evils and tendencies in my heart unfriendly to godliness. I found my bosom foes troubled me more than all my foes without. I was more strongly convicted of my need of inward purity than I ever had been for pardon.
"When I read, 'Count it all joy, when ye fall into divers temptations,' I found that my spiritual arithmetic did not figure out right."
Sooner or later the believer will feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit for this state of inbred sin in his heart.
"And now first do they see the ground of their hearts, which God before would not disclose unto them lest the spirit should fail before him, and the soul which he had made. Now they see all the hidden abominations there: the depth of pride, self-will, and hell; yet having the witness in themselves, 'Thou art an heir of God, a joint-heir with Christ,' even in the midst of this fiery trial, which continually heightens both the strong sense they then have of their inability to help themselves and the inexpressible hunger they feel after a full renewal in the image of God, in 'righteousness and true holiness.'
Are those who are born of the Spirit cleansed from inbred sin? "Far from it: we still retain a depth of sin: and it is the consciousness of this, which constrains us to groan for a full deliverance to Him that is mighty to save. Hence it is, that those believers who are not convinced of the deep corruption of their hearts, or but slightly, and as it were notionally convinced, have little concern about entire sanctification. They may possibly hold the opinion that such a thing is to be, either at death, or some time, they know not when, before death. But they have no great uneasiness for the want of it, and no great hunger or thirst after it. They can not, until they know themselves better, until they repent in the sense above described, until God unveils the inbred
"Let me sink with you before the throne of grace, and while the cherubim veil their faces, and cry out in tender, exquisite trembling, 'Holy! holy! holy!' let us put our mouths in the dust and echo back the solemn sound, 'Holy! holy! holy!'
"I found many hindrances, especially a very bad temper. I began to feel an aching void in my soul."
"My heart was ill at ease. It was not my outward walk that caused me sorrow. My heart troubled me, roots of bitterness, coldness, want of a meek and quiet spirit. At times I went through agonies of conflicts in my efforts to bring about a different state of things."
"When I was convicted for holiness, I was in a clearly justified state. When I was converted, it was conviction of guilt; now it was the conviction of want. When I read, 'Rejoice when men persecute you,' I felt that was not my experience; there was a feeling of retaliation. And when they spoke about me, and blamed me, I wanted to justify myself instead of leaving it all with God."
"During this period, I was convicted of remaining corruption in my heart, and of the need of purity. I was often conscious of deep-rooted, inward evils and tendencies in my heart unfriendly to godliness. I found my bosom foes troubled me more than all my foes without. I was more strongly convicted of my need of inward purity than I ever had been for pardon.
"When I read, 'Count it all joy, when ye fall into divers temptations,' I found that my spiritual arithmetic did not figure out right."
Sooner or later the believer will feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit for this state of inbred sin in his heart.
"And now first do they see the ground of their hearts, which God before would not disclose unto them lest the spirit should fail before him, and the soul which he had made. Now they see all the hidden abominations there: the depth of pride, self-will, and hell; yet having the witness in themselves, 'Thou art an heir of God, a joint-heir with Christ,' even in the midst of this fiery trial, which continually heightens both the strong sense they then have of their inability to help themselves and the inexpressible hunger they feel after a full renewal in the image of God, in 'righteousness and true holiness.'
Are those who are born of the Spirit cleansed from inbred sin? "Far from it: we still retain a depth of sin: and it is the consciousness of this, which constrains us to groan for a full deliverance to Him that is mighty to save. Hence it is, that those believers who are not convinced of the deep corruption of their hearts, or but slightly, and as it were notionally convinced, have little concern about entire sanctification. They may possibly hold the opinion that such a thing is to be, either at death, or some time, they know not when, before death. But they have no great uneasiness for the want of it, and no great hunger or thirst after it. They can not, until they know themselves better, until they repent in the sense above described, until God unveils the inbred
monster's face, and shows them the real state of their souls. Then only, when they feel the burden, will they groan for deliverance from it. Then, and not until then, will they cry out, in the agony of their soul,
'Break off the yoke of inbred sin, And fully set my spirit free!
I can not rest till pure within, Till I am wholly lost in Thee!'
"I began to long after holiness. I began to groan under the bondage to sin in which I was still held. My whole heart panted after entire conformity to the will of God and unhindered communion with him.
"By fasting and prayer Fletcher was enabled to see the uncleanness of his soul -- 'the remains of envy, jealousy, fretfulness, anger, pride, impatience, peevishness, formality, sloth, prejudice, bigotry, carnal confidence, evil shame, self-righteousness, idolatrous love, and all the evils which form the retinue of hypocrisy and unbelief.'
Thus the Word of God and experiences of men and women of God prove that the Holy Spirit is faithful in convicting the believer for the indwelling of inbred sin or the old man.
'Break off the yoke of inbred sin, And fully set my spirit free!
I can not rest till pure within, Till I am wholly lost in Thee!'
"I began to long after holiness. I began to groan under the bondage to sin in which I was still held. My whole heart panted after entire conformity to the will of God and unhindered communion with him.
"By fasting and prayer Fletcher was enabled to see the uncleanness of his soul -- 'the remains of envy, jealousy, fretfulness, anger, pride, impatience, peevishness, formality, sloth, prejudice, bigotry, carnal confidence, evil shame, self-righteousness, idolatrous love, and all the evils which form the retinue of hypocrisy and unbelief.'
Thus the Word of God and experiences of men and women of God prove that the Holy Spirit is faithful in convicting the believer for the indwelling of inbred sin or the old man.
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