July 10th, 2014. LOVE IN HIS LOVING And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father! Galatians 4:6 The love of God is now in the Holy Spirit. It is concentrated there. This love is being dispensed into us, poured out in us, through the Holy Spirit. So when we speak about the love- life of the bride, we are not speaking about natural energy that tries to work up a love for God. We are talking about relaxing and resting in a poured- out love that already exists in our spirits and hearts. All we have to do is give voice to it. Just give voice to it a little bit. Echo it. Praise in His praising! Sing in His singing! Love in His loving! To have the Spirit of the Son in our hearts crying out, Abba, Father seems somewhat objective. It seems that we need to put a stethoscope up to our heart and listen for an Abba, Father. But when Romans 8:15 says, You have received a spirit of sonship in which we cry out, Abba! Father! (NASV), it becomes subjective in our experience. Who is crying Abba, Father? The Son in our hearts or we in our spirits? By putting Galatians 4:6 together with Romans 8:15, we can see that there is one crying and also one loving. He cries in our crying, He loves in our loving. In our crying, it is Him. In our loving, it is Him. It is Him crying, loving, worshipping, and saying Abba. By this we see that there is one love, and this one marvellous love poured out in our hearts is what we are giving voice to. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father [Galatians 4:6]. And because ye are sons. The adoption which he had mentioned, is proved to belong to the Galatians by the following argument. This adoption must have preceded the testimony of adoption given by the Holy Spirit; but the effect is the sign of the cause. In venturing, he says, to call God your Father, you have the advice and direction of the Spirit of Christ; therefore it is certain that you are the sons of God. This agrees with what is elsewhere taught by him, that the Spirit is the earnest and pledge of our adoption, and gives to us a well- founded belief that God regards us with a fathers love. Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. (2 Corinthians 1:22.) Now he that hath wrought us for the self- same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 5:5.) But it will be objected, do not wicked men, too, carry their rashness so far as to proclaim that God is their Father? Do they not frequently, with greater confidence than others, utter their false boasts? I reply, Pauls language does not relate to idle who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 5:5.) But it will be objected, do not wicked men, too, carry their rashness so far as to proclaim that God is their Father? Do they not frequently, with greater confidence than others, utter their false boasts? I reply, Pauls language does not relate to idle boasting, or to the proud opinion of himself which any man may entertain, but to the testimony of a pious conscience which accompanies the new birth. This argument can have no weight but in the case of believers, for ungodly men have no experience of this certainty; as our Lord himself declares. The Spirit of truth, says he, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him. (John 14:17.) This is implied in Pauls words, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts. It is not what the persons themselves, in the foolish judgment of the flesh, may venture to believe, but what God declares in their hearts by his Spirit. The Spirit of his Son is a title more strictly adapted to the present occasion than any other that could have been employed. We are the sons of God, because we have received the same Spirit as his only Son. Let it be observed, that Paul ascribes this universally to all Christians; for where this pledge of the Divine love towards us is wanting, there is assuredly no faith. Hence it is evident what sort of Christianity belongs to Popery, since any man who says, that he has the Spirit of God, is charged by them with impious presumption. Neither the Spirit of God, nor certainty, belongs to their notion of faith. This single tenet held by them is a remarkable proof that, in all the schools of the Papists, the devil, the father of unbelief, reigns. I acknowledge, indeed, that the scholastic divines, when they enjoin upon the consciences of men the agitation of perpetual doubt, are in perfect agreement with what the natural feelings of mankind would dictate. It is the more necessary to fix in our minds this doctrine of Paul, Let it be observed, that Paul ascribes this universally to all Christians; for where this pledge of the Divine love towards us is wanting, there is assuredly no faith. Hence it is evident what sort of Christianity belongs to Popery, since any man who says, that he has the Spirit of God, is charged by them with impious presumption. Neither the Spirit of God, nor certainty, belongs to their notion of faith. This single tenet held by them is a remarkable proof that, in all the schools of the Papists, the devil, the father of unbelief, reigns. I acknowledge, indeed, that the scholastic divines, when they enjoin upon the consciences of men the agitation of perpetual doubt, are in perfect agreement with what the natural feelings of mankind would dictate. It is the more necessary to fix in our minds this doctrine of Paul, that no man is a Christian who has not learned, by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, to call God his Father. Crying. This participle, I think, is used in order to express greater boldness. Hesitation does not allow us to speak freely, but keeps the mouth nearly shut, while the half- broken words can hardly escape from a stammering tongue. Crying, on the other hand, expresses firmness and unwavering confidence. For we have not received again the spirit of bondage to fear, but of freedom to full confidence. (Romans 8:15.) Abba, Father. The meaning of these words, I have no doubt, is, that calling upon God is common to all languages. It is a fact which bears directly on the present subject, that the name Father is given to God both by the Hebrews and by the Greeks; as had been predicted by Isaiah, Every tongue shall make confession to my name. (Isaiah 45:23.) The whole of this subject is handled by the apostle at greater length in his Epistle to the Romans. I judge it unnecessary to repeat here observations which I have already made in the exposition of that Epistle, and which the reader may consult. Since, therefore, Gentiles are reckoned among the sons of God, it is evident that adoption comes not by the merit of the law, but by the grace of faith. July 10 MORNING THE DISCIPLE IS NOT ABOVE [HIS] MASTER. Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for [so] I am. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord.-- If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.-- I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.-- Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.-- Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.-- Forasmuch... as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. Mt 10:24. Joh 13:13. Mt 10:25.-- John 15:20.-- Joh 17:14. Heb 12:3, 4, 1, 2-- 1 Pe 4:1. July 10 EVENING MY SON, GIVE ME THINE HEART. O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever! Thy heart is not right in the sight of God.-- Because the carnal mind [is] enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. [They]... first gave their own selves to the Lord.-- In every work that [Hezekiah] began... to seek his God, he did [it] with all his heart, and prospered. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it [are] the issues of life. Whatsoever ye do, do [it] heartily, as to the Lord.-- As the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men. I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart. PROV 23:26. De 5:29. Ac 8:21.-- Ro 8:7, 8. 2 Co 8:5-- 2 Ch 31:21. Pr 4:23. Col 3:23.-- Ep 6:6, 7. Ps 119:32.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 20:02:04 +0000
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