{"id":5854,"date":"2020-10-17T08:35:47","date_gmt":"2020-10-17T08:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=5854"},"modified":"2020-10-17T08:35:47","modified_gmt":"2020-10-17T08:35:47","slug":"bulletin-edition-october-2020-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=5854","title":{"rendered":"Bulletin Edition October 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The\nTwo Natures in a Believer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\nJ. C. Philpot<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among\nthose branches of divine truth which, without special teaching, we cannot enter\ninto, is, that of the two natures in a believer. And yet, though every child of\nGod must in all ages have been experimentally acquainted with the inward\nconflict between flesh and spirit, nature and grace; and though authors\ninnumerable have written on such subjects as sanctification, the trial of\nfaith, the strength of grace, the power of sin, the deceitfulness of the heart,\nthe commencement and progress, decline and restoration, of the life of God in\nthe soul, yet how few even of these really spiritual and experimental writers\nhave laid out the truth of the case as made known in the Scriptures, and felt\nin the experience of the saints! How blind have many gracious writers, as, for\ninstance, Dr. Owen, and most of the Puritan authors, been to the distinctness\nof flesh and spirit! In fact, as it seems to us, many good men have been afraid\nof the real, actual truth. Our Puritan ancestors especially, living in a day\nwhen profanity and ungodliness ran down the streets like water, and holiness,\ntherefore, of heart and life was powerfully urged as the distinctive feature of\nthe children of God, intuitively shrank from anything that seemed in its\nfaintest coloring opposed to their view of gospel sanctification. They feared\nto believe, and dreaded to proclaim, that “the carnal mind is enmity\nagainst God; that it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed could\nbe.” They seemed to think, if they once admitted that the flesh, the\ncarnal mind, underwent no spiritual change; in other words, could not be\nsanctified; it was opening a wide and open door to the worst Antinomianism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nis a distinction between “the flesh” and “the carnal mind.”\nThe flesh is the corrupt principle itself: the carnal mind is the breathing,\nmoving, and acting of the corrupt principle. The flesh is, as it were, the\nbody, the carnal mind the soul of sin; the flesh is the still atmosphere,\npregnant with disease and death; the carnal mind is the same air in motion,\ncarrying with it the noisome pestilence; the flesh is a giant, but lying down\nor asleep; the carnal mind is the giant awake and hurling his weapons of\ndefiance against heaven and earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\nno one point, it may be remarked, are the minds of men professing some measure\nof truth so sensitive as upon that of the believer’s personal sanctification.\nYou may be three parts an Arminian, and four-fifths of a Pharisee, and men will\nspeak well of you and of your religion; no, many even of God’s children will\nthink favorably of you. But be in their eyes one-tenth of an Antinomian, and\nthey will unchristianise you in a moment, if you had the experience of Hart,\nthe gifts of Huntington, the godly life of Romaine, and the blessed death of\nToplady. Now, nothing so much exposes a man to the suspicion of secret\nAntinomianism as his denying the sanctification of the flesh. The cry is at\nonce raised, “You are an enemy to holiness; you turn the grace of God into\nlicentiousness; you allow people to live as they list; you encourage men under\na profession of religion to continue in sin.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who\ndoes not know the charges which they ring on this peal of bells against all who\nassert that the flesh is incurably corrupt, and cannot be molded afresh, or new\nmodeled, or sanctified, or conformed to the image of Christ, but remains to the\nlast what it was at the first, “the old man which is corrupt according to\nthe deceitful lusts?” We may oppose to these clamorous reproaches a godly\nlife, a gospel walk, a spiritual mindedness, a heavenly conversation, a filial\nfear, a tender conscience, a separation from evil, a liberality to the poor and\nneedy, and a deadness to the world of which our opponents profess little and\nmanifest less; but all in vain. The very suspicion that we deny the holiness of\nthe flesh, present or possible, makes us viewed by most of the “very\nreligious” people of our day much as the Protestant heretic is looked upon\nby the staunch Papist\u2014a kind of horrid being, who may, perhaps, by a death-bed\nconversion to their views, and a full recantation of his own, escape hell, but\nwho, at present, is in a very awful and dangerous condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nleaving these poor ignorant creatures who speak evil of things that they know\nnot, and who are actuated by much the same principle and spirit as those of old\nwho said of the Lord himself, “He has a devil, and is mad; why hear you\nhim?” let us look for a few moments at a very different class of people to\nwhom the mystery of the two natures is but little known. These are the honest\nand sincere, the tender in conscience and broken in heart of the children of\nGod, who, for want of divine light on this point, are often deeply tried and\nperplexed, and sometimes almost at their wit’s end from what they feel of the\ninward workings and strength of sin. They are told, and their naturally\nreligious mind, their traditionary creed, and their unenlightened\nunderstanding, all fully fall in with what they hear enforced on their\nconscience, that the sanctification of the soul, without which there is no\nsalvation, is a gradual progress from one degree of holiness to another, until,\nwith the exception of a few insignificant “remains” of sin, which,\nfrom some unknown cause, obstinately resist the sanctifying process, the\nbeliever becomes thoroughly holy, in body, soul, and spirit. Sin, they are\ntold, may occasionally stir up a bad thought or two, or now and then a carnal\ndesire may most unaccountably start up; but its power is destroyed, the\nrebellious movement is immediately subdued, the hasty spark, which straight is\ncool again, is put out at once without further damage, and the process of\nsanctification keeps going on as harmoniously and uninterruptedly as before,\nuntil the soul is almost as fit for heaven as if it were already there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beautiful\ntheory! but as deceptive and as unsubstantial as the mirage of the desert, or\nthe summer evening cloud bathed in the golden glow of the sinking sun. And so\nthose sincere, honest-hearted children of God find and feel when “the\nmotions of sin which are by the law,” stirred and roused from their torpid\ninactivity by its application, work in their members to bring forth fruit unto\ndeath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ndoctrine of progressive sanctification, implying, as it does, in the mouth of\nits strenuous advocates, the gradual extirpation of sin and the molding of the\ncarnal mind into the image of Christ, is to the honest and tender conscience a\ntorturing doctrine, pregnant with guilt, bondage, and despair. To a man who\nmerely plays with religion, all doctrines are pretty much alike. None cause him\ntrouble, and none cause him joy. The holiness of God, the spirituality and\ncurse of the law, the evil of sin, the helplessness of the creature, the\nsinfulness of the flesh, the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of the\nheart, as long as they are mere doctrines, have no more effect upon the\nconscience than a narrative of the battle of Alma or an account of the fight at\nInkermann. To a professor of religion dead in his unregeneracy, the fall of man\nis nothing like so stirring as the fall of Sebastopol; and the recovery by\nChrist does not give him half so much pleasure as the recovery from a bad cold.\nThese are the men to preach progressive sanctification; and none urge it so\ncontinually, and press it so forcibly, except, perhaps, those that are living\nin sin, who are usually the greatest advocates for holiness, either as a mask\nof their practice, or on the principle of a set off, that, having none of their\nown, they may get as much as they can of other people’s. “In for a penny,\nin for a pound,” is the maxim of a man who runs into debt without meaning\nto pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nso, if a man means to pay God nothing of the obedience and holiness which he\nurges upon others, he thinks he cannot do better than get into debt as deep as\nhe can. None set the ladder so high as the master who stops at the foot, and\nurges his man on to the topmost round. None lay such heavy burdens on men’s shoulders\nas those who themselves never touch them with one of their fingers; and none\nwield so unmercifully the whip as those who have never felt the end of the\nlash. To all such miserable taskmasters the tried and distressed in soul may\nwell say, “What is play to you is death to us; you are in jest, but we are\nin earnest; you are at your ease, we are laboring to attain unto what you only\ntalk about. The holiness that you are preaching we are striving to practice.\nYour flashes of exhortation are but summer lightning, and your denunciations\nbut stage thunder; while we are at the foot of the mount that burned with fire,\nand where there was blackness and darkness and tempest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsanctification of the flesh that you urge may do for you who have learned your\nlesson at the academy, and preach what you neither know, nor understand, nor\nfeel\u2014blind leaders of the blind, as you and your tutors are. Such a doctrine\nlies with no more weight on your conscience than the preacher’s gown upon your\nback, or the gold ring upon your little finger; but it is not so with us, who\nare daily and hourly groaning beneath a body of sin and death. It is the load\nof sin that so deeply tries us, and our utter inability to bring forth the\nholiness that you urge upon our sore and bleeding consciences. It is our base\nbackslidings, our sins against love and blood, our barrenness and deadness; the\ndreadful depravity of our hearts; our getting every day worse instead of\ngetting every day better, that so deeply tries us: and your doctrine rubs salt\ninto our bleeding, gaping wounds.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To\nsuch tried and distressed souls as these, who have been harassed almost to\ndeath by the doctrine of progressive sanctification, how reviving and\nencouraging it is when the mystery of the two natures is opened up to their\nspiritual understanding, and sealed upon their conscience by the Blessed\nSpirit!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bought\nwith a high price!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Spurgeon,\n“Bought with a Price” #1004)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For\nGod bought you with a high price.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 1\nCor. 6:20<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Refresh\nin your souls a sense of the fact<\/p>\n\n\n\n

that\nyou are “bought with a high price.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nin the midnight hour, amid the olives of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gethsemane,\nkneels Immanuel the Son of God;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

he\ngroans, he pleads in prayer, he wrestles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See\nthe beady drops stand on his brow, drops<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of\nsweat, but not of such sweat as pours from<\/p>\n\n\n\n

men\nwhen they earn the bread of life, but the<\/p>\n\n\n\n

sweat\nof him who is procuring life itself for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nis blood! It is crimson blood! Great gouts of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

it\nare falling to the ground! O soul, your Savior<\/p>\n\n\n\n

speaks\nto you from out Gethsemane at this hour,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and\nhe says: “Here and thus I bought you with a<\/p>\n\n\n\n

price.”\nCome, stand and view him in the agony of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the\nolive garden, and understand at what a cost<\/p>\n\n\n\n

he\nprocured your deliverance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Track\nhim in all his path of shame and sorrow until<\/p>\n\n\n\n

you\nsee him at Gabbatha. Mark how they bind<\/p>\n\n\n\n

his\nhands and fasten him to the whipping-post. See,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

they\nbring the scourges and the cruel Roman whips;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

they\ntear his flesh; the ploughers make deep furrows<\/p>\n\n\n\n

on\nhis blessed body, and the blood gushes forth in<\/p>\n\n\n\n

streams,\nwhile rivulets from his temples, where the<\/p>\n\n\n\n

crown\nof thorns has pierced them, join to swell the<\/p>\n\n\n\n

purple\nstream. From beneath the scourges he speaks<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to\nyou with accents soft and low, and he says, “My<\/p>\n\n\n\n

child,\nit is here and thus I bought you with a price.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nsee him on the cross itself when the consummation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of\nall has come. His hands and feet are fountains of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

blood,\nhis soul is full of anguish even to heartbreak;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and\nthere, before the soldier pierces with a spear his<\/p>\n\n\n\n

side,\nbowing down he whispers to you and to me,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It\nwas here and thus, I bought you with a high price.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\nby Gethsemane, by Gabbatha, by Golgotha, by<\/p>\n\n\n\n

every\nsacred name collected with the passion of our<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord;\nby sponge and vinegar, and nail and spear,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and\neverything that enlarged the pain and increased<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the\nanguish of his death, I implore you, my beloved<\/p>\n\n\n\n

brethren,\nto remember that you were “bought with<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a\nhigh price,” and “are not your own.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsoul of His sufferings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(John\nMacDuff, “The Holy Mount” 1856)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The\nplace which is called Calvary.” Luke 23:33<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christ’s\ndeath on the cross was preeminently painful. It appears to have been devised\nwith savage ingenuity, to cause as much suffering as possible. Hence the vital\nparts are left untouched; the wounds are inflicted upon the extremities of the\nbody, iron spikes being driven through the hands and feet; while the poor\nsufferer has to hang in a position which admits of no change or rest, and\nburning inflammation works its way gradually to the seat of life. It was\ndoubtless a death painful in the extreme; so much so, that the strongest term\nwe have for expressing intense agony, the term “excruciating,” is\nderived from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nthe outward sufferings which the Savior bore on Calvary were nothing, when\ncompared with His inward sufferings. His bodily agonies, as great as they were,\nwere as light as a feather, in comparison with the agonies of His soul. The\nsufferings of His soul \u2014 were truly the soul of His sufferings. But of those\nsoul-sufferings, what can we say?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nmay, in some measure, describe what was going on without \u2014 but who can describe\nwhat was passing within?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nmay describe the derision of the Jews \u2014 but who can describe the desertion of\nHis Heavenly Father?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nmay describe the soldiers spear \u2014 but who can describe the arrows of the\nAlmighty?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nmay describe the nails piercing His sacred flesh \u2014 but who can describe eternal\njustice piercing both flesh and spirit?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nmay describe the cup of vinegar which He tasted \u2014 but who can describe the cup\nof wrath which He drank to its lowest dregs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nmay describe the accursed tree on which He hung \u2014 but who can describe the\ncurse of the law which made it so?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nsuch an attempt \u2014 language fails, how poor is thought, and how impotent are the\nmost emphatic representations! Truly, His soul-sufferings are unfathomable!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reader,\nwould you have your heart softened, and your love inflamed? Go to Calvary, to\ngaze on the wondrous spectacle which is there presented. While so doing let\nyour language be,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Was\nit for crimes that I have done,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 He\ngroaned upon the tree?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Amazing\npity! grace unknown!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 And\nlove beyond degree!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Two Natures in a Believer By J. C. Philpot Among those branches of divine truth which, without special teaching, we cannot enter into, is, that of the two natures in a believer. And yet, though every child of God must in all ages have been experimentally acquainted with the inward conflict between flesh and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulletin-editions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5854","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=5854"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5855,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5854\/revisions\/5855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}