THE ALMOST-DELIVERED MAN The man has tried to obey the beautiful law of God. He has loved it; he has wept over his sin; and he has tried to conquer. He has tried to overcome fault after fault, but every time he has ended in failure. What did he mean by the body of this death? Did he mean, my body when I die? Surely not. In the eighth chapter, you have the answer to this question in the words: If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live (Romans 8:13). That is the body of death from which he is seeking deliverance. And now he is on the brink of deliverance! In, the twentythird verse of the seventh chapter, we have the words: I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. It is a captive that cries: 0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body I of this death? He is a man who feels himself bound. But look to.the contrast in the second verse of the eighth chapter: The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. That is the deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord, the liberty to the captive which the Spirit brings. Can you keep captive any longer a man made free by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus? But you say, the regenerate man did not have the Spirit of Jesus when he spoke in the sixth chapter. Yes, he did not know what the Holy Spirit could do for him. God does not work by His Spirit as He works by a blind force in nature. He leads His people on as reasonable, intelligent beings. Therefore, when He wants to give us that Holy Spirit whom He has promised, He first brings us to the end of sel brings us to the conviction that though we have been striving to obey the law, we have failed. When we have come to the end of that, then He shows us that in the Holy Spirit we have the power of obedience, the power of victory, and the power of real holiness. God works to will, and He is ready to work to do, but many Christians misunderstand this. They think because they have the will, it is enough, and that now they are able to do. This is not so. The new will is a permanent gift, an attribute of the new nature. The power to do is not a permanent gift, but must be received each moment from the Holy Spirit. It is the man who is conscious of his own weakness as a believer who will learn that by the Holy Spirit he can live a holy life. This man is on the brink of that great deliverance; the way has been prepared for the glorious eighth chapter. I now ask this solemn question: Where are you living? With you, is it, 0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me? with now and then a little experience of the power of the Holy Spirit? Or is it, I thank God through Jesus Christ! The law of the Spirit hath set me free from the law of sin and of death? What the Holy Spirit does is to give the victory. If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live (Romans 8:13). It is the Holy Spirit who does this-the third Person of the Godhead. It is He who, when the heart is opened wide to receive Him, comes in and reigns there, and mortifies the deeds of the body, day by day, hour by hour, and moment by moment. I want to bring this to a point. Remember, dear friend, what we need is to come to decision and action. There are in Scripture two very different sorts of Christians. The Bible speaks in Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians about yielding to the flesh; and that is the life of tens of thousands of believers. All their lack of joy in the Holy Spirit, and their lack of the liberty He gives, is just owing to the flesh. The Spirit is within them, but the flesh rules the life. To be led by the Spirit of God is what they need. If only I could make every child of His realize what it means that the everlasting God has given His dear Son, Christ Jesus, to watch over you every day, and that what you have to do is to trust. If only I could make His children understand that the work of the Holy Spirit is to enable you every moment to remember Jesus, and to trust Him! The Spirit has come to keep the link with Him unbroken every moment. Praise God for the Holy Spirit! We are so accustomed to thinking of the Holy Spirit as a luxury, for special times, or for special ministers and men. But the Holy Spirit is necessary for every believer, every moment of the day. Praise God you have Him, and that He gives you the full experience of the deliverance in Christ as He makes you free from the power of sin. Who longs to have the power and the liberty of the Holy Spirit? Oh, brother, bow before God in one final cry of despair: 0 God, must I go on sinning this way forever? Who shall deliver me, 0 wretched man that I am! from the body of this death? Are you ready to sink before God in that cry and seek the power of Jesus to live and work in you? Are you ready to say: I thank God through Jesus Christ? What good does it do that we go to church or attend conventions, that we study our Bibles and pray, unless our lives are filled with the Holy Spirit? That is what God wants. Nothing else will enable us to live a life of power and peace. When a minister or parent is using the catechism, and a question is asked, an answer is expected. How sad that many Christians are content with the question put here: 0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? but never give the answer. Instead of answering, they are silent. Instead of saying: I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, they are forever repeating the question without the answer. If you want the path to the full deliverance of Christ, and the liberty of the Spirit-the glorious liberty of the children of God-take it through the seventh chapter of Romans. Then say: I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Do not be content to remain ever groaning, but say: I, a wretched man, thank God, through Jesus Christ. Even though I do not see it all, I am going to praise God. There is deliverance; there is the liberty of the Holy Spirit. The Kingdom of God is joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17).
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 13:50:35 +0000
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