6. We profit from the Word when the soul is moved to pray earnestly for enabling grace. In regeneration the Holy Spirit communicates a nature which is fitted for obedience according to the Word. The heart has been won by God. There is now a deep and sincere desire to please Him. But the new nature possesses no inherent power, and the old nature or "flesh" strives against it, and the devil opposes. Thus, the Christian exclaims, "To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not" (Romans 7:18). This does not mean that he is the slave of sin, as he was before conversion; but it means that he finds not how fully to realize his spiritual aspirations. Therefore does he pray, "Make me to go in the path of Thy commandments; for therein do I delight" (Psalm 119:35). And again, "Order my steps in Thy word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me" (Psalm 119:133).
Here we would reply to a question which the above statements have probably raised in many minds: Are you affirming that God requires perfect obedience from us in this life? We answer, Yes! God will not set any lower standard before us than that (1 Peter 1:15). Then does the real Christian measure up to that standard? Yes, and no! Yes, in his heart, and it is at the heart that God looks (1 Samuel 16:7). In his heart every regenerated person has a real love for God's commandments, and genuinely desires to keep all of them completely. It is in this sense, and this alone, that the Christian is experimentally "perfect". The word "perfect" both in the Old Testament (Job 1:1, and Psalm 37:37) and in the New Testament (Phil. 3:15), means "upright", "sincere," in contrast with "hypocritical".
"Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble" (Psalm 10:17). The desires of the saint are the language of his soul, and the promise is, "He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him" (Psalm 145:19). The Christian's desire is to obey God in all things, to be completely conformed to the image of Christ. But this will only be realized in the resurrection. Meanwhile, God for Christ's sake graciously accepts the will for the deed (1 Peter 2:5). He knows our hearts and sees in His child a genuine love for and a sincere desire to keep all His commandments, and He accepts the fervent longing and cordial endeavor in lieu of an exact performance (2 Corinthians 8:12). But let none who are living in willful disobedience draw false peace and pervert to their own destruction what has just been said for the comfort of those who are heartily desirous of seeking to please God in all the details of their lives.
If any ask, How am I to know that my "desires" are really those of a regenerate soul? we answer, Saving grace is the communication to the heart of an habitual disposition unto holy acts. The "desires" of the reader are to be tested thus: Are they constant and continuous, or only by fits and starts? Are they earnest and serious, so that you really hunger and thirst after righteousness" (Matthew 5:6) and pan after God )Psalm 42:1)? Are they operative and efficacious? Many desire to escape from hell, yet their desires are not sufficiently strong to bring them to hate and turn from that which must inevitably bring them to hell, namely, willful sinning against God. Many desire to go to heaven, but not so that they enter upon and follow that "narrow way" which alone leads there. True spiritual "desires" use the means of grace and spare no pains to realize them, and continue prayerfully pressing forward unto the mark set before them.
7. We profit from the Word when we are, even now, enjoying the reward of obedience. "Godliness is profitable unto all things" (1 Timothy 4:8). By obedience we purify our souls (1 Peter 1:21). By obedience we obtain the ear of God (1 John 3:22), just as disobedience is a barrier to our prayers (Isaiah 59:2); Jeremiah 5:25). By obedience we obtain precious and intimate manifestations of Christ unto the soul (John 14:21). As we tread the path of wisdom (complete subjection to God) we discover that "her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace" (Proverbs 3:17). "His commandments are NOT grievous" (1 John 5:3), and "in keeping of them there is great reward" (Psalm 19:11).
~A. W. Pink~
(continued with # 11 - "The Scriptures and the World")
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