{"id":5770,"date":"2020-08-03T01:24:08","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T01:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=5770"},"modified":"2020-08-03T01:24:08","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T01:24:08","slug":"we-by-nature-and-practice-are-slaves-to-sin-and-satan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=5770","title":{"rendered":"We by nature and practice are slaves to sin and Satan."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.\u201d Romans 8:2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>J.C.Philpot<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We by nature and practice are slaves to sin and Satan. We are the sport of the prince of the power of the air, who takes us captive at his will. We are held down also by many hurtful lusts; or, if free from gross sin, are slaves to pride, covetousness, or self-righteousness. Perhaps some idol is set up in the chambers of imagery which defiles all the inner man; or some snare of Satan entangles our feet, and we are slaves, without power to liberate ourselves from this cruel slavery. We groan under it, as the children of Israel under their burdens, but, like them, cannot deliver ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But sooner or later the truth comes to our aid; the truth as it is in Jesus flies to the rescue of God\u2019s oppressed family; the blessed Spirit opens it up and seals it upon the heart with a divine power. As, then, under his gracious influences they believe the truth, and feel its power and savor in their heart, a liberating influence is communicated; their fetters and shackles are loosened; the bondage of sin and Satan, and the power and strength of evil are sensibly broken, and a measure of holy freedom is enjoyed. There is no other way of getting from under the bondage of the law but by the application of the gospel, and by believing what the gospel reveals. As the truth, then, comes to the heart as the very word of the living God, power comes with it to believe; faith is raised up to credit the testimony; and as faith begins to credit the truth of God and receive it in hope and love, there is a sensible loosening of the bonds; and then the chains and fetters drop off of themselves. It is with the soul as it was with Peter in prison\u2013when the angel came, and a light shined in the prison, and the angel\u2019s words fell upon his ears, \u201cthe chains fell from off his hands.\u201d There remained nothing then to bar his exit; for \u201cthe iron gate that leads unto the city opened to them of its own accord.\u201d So whatever chains or fetters may hold the soul, let the angel of mercy come; let the message of salvation be revealed, the chains of unbelief drop off, the iron gate of hardness gives way, and the truth makes the soul blessedly free (John 8:32).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.\u201d Romans 8:2 J.C.Philpot We by nature and practice are slaves to sin and Satan. We are the sport of the prince of the power of the air, who takes us captive at his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-j-c-philpot","category-total-depravity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5770"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5771,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5770\/revisions\/5771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}