THE SWEETNESS OF LOVE Part 2
The wisdom of the fathers
THE SWEETNESS OF LOVE ???Part 2
?No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62) No one can serve two masters… You cannot serve God and mammon. (Matt. 6:24) God created man to serve Him alone. Jesus therefore knew how to respond to the devil when He was tempted to the self-seeking and self-exalting ways of the world. He said, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” (Matt. 4:10) We will all need to recognize this unbreakable law if we hope to survive Satan’s temptations. God will not permit anyone to serve themselves.
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?After purifying the heart, God works to enlarge the vessel by revealing more light. He begins to show us more and more what Jesus was like. Increasing light always leads to a deeper sacrificing of self for the purpose of revealing more of the Christ-life. If the individual begins to resist this light and give way to the devil’s temptation to live for self or to exalt self, a crack will develop, permitting darkness to seep back into the once pure and holy heart.?
It is not difficult to find Christians who were once fully sanctified now living by their own will in a self-seeking and self-exalting way of life. At this point it may be helpful to introduce some thoughts from J. M. Hames. In his book Deeper Things, he says, “It is not enough to be saved from sin or merely to be [fully] sanctified. There are degrees far deeper than a clean heart. God wishes to beautify and polish and so refine saints that they will be attractive. We are to ‘Put on the new man.’ This means the very image of Christ, which takes the place of the old man…?
(from "White Robes" by G.D. Watson)