Knowledge of God
"And thou when thou prayest , enter into thy closet." How do we enter there ? We come to the Holy God , as to one who is a Spirit... His presence is called the holiest of all. How do we come to Him? By the blood of the covenant ; and with all boldness . I fear that we often think that we can come to Him without this blood ; or rather without any deep sense of our need of it . But what is the reason of that? Simply that some of us do not know God at all; and that we never yet have discovered either our enmity to God , or God's contrariety to us .The very first effect which the knowledge of God has upon a man , is to make him feel that he is full of enmity to God , and that therefore he cannot , or dare not come to God. He trembles at the very mention of His name ; he can never hear it with joy until he has been sprinkled by the blood . The blood on the lintel kept the destroying angel out . This is just a picture of the covenant of grace . Sprinkled with this blood , we can draw near to God , and when God by His Spirit draws us , then we come by His way , and have boldness to enter into the holiest of all.
But then , that makes us humble . No soul that ever entered there remained proud , either towards God or man; and this just belies the approaches to God that some people say they make . If they find it a natural and easy thing to come into the secret of His presence ;-if they find that their nature goes quite along with it , and they can enter there at all times , without difficulty;- this proves nothing but their ignorance of God
Again , when a believer goes into his closet , he requires to have the blood of sprinkling applied to his conscience , and that blood he presents to God But before he can do this , the enmity must be slain by the power of God's Spirit ; and this is one of the tokens of God's eternal covenant with His Son having being ratified , that the believer feels this within him , as one of its glorious fruits . True, the enmity is only so far slain ; it is not yet extinct . Believers know this ; and when we come into our closets , do we not often bring with us that awful distance of heart , which dwells even in God's own people ? It can never be destroyed while sin remains in them , and it can only be subdued by the sprinkling of the blood of the Lamb
Now, if there be any who never have known what enmity is , and who find it quite an easy matter to come before Him in prayer at all times , what does this prove? That they are living near to God ? It just proves this , that such people know nothing of God .. It is when a man entering into his closet , and from that to the secret place of God , meets for the first time with Him as a righteous God in Christ , and when God at the same time meets with the sinner as a returning and believing child , saying Abba Father , that the sinner is reconciled to God , and united to the Saviour
And what follows ? Only the same thing again and again till his dying day . The duty of Christ's religion is in fact just this , that the believing sinner cannot help from day to day coming , and coming always newly , and yet always in the same way, to his reconciled God and Father in Christ Jesus.
But then , that makes us humble . No soul that ever entered there remained proud , either towards God or man; and this just belies the approaches to God that some people say they make . If they find it a natural and easy thing to come into the secret of His presence ;-if they find that their nature goes quite along with it , and they can enter there at all times , without difficulty;- this proves nothing but their ignorance of God
Again , when a believer goes into his closet , he requires to have the blood of sprinkling applied to his conscience , and that blood he presents to God But before he can do this , the enmity must be slain by the power of God's Spirit ; and this is one of the tokens of God's eternal covenant with His Son having being ratified , that the believer feels this within him , as one of its glorious fruits . True, the enmity is only so far slain ; it is not yet extinct . Believers know this ; and when we come into our closets , do we not often bring with us that awful distance of heart , which dwells even in God's own people ? It can never be destroyed while sin remains in them , and it can only be subdued by the sprinkling of the blood of the Lamb
Now, if there be any who never have known what enmity is , and who find it quite an easy matter to come before Him in prayer at all times , what does this prove? That they are living near to God ? It just proves this , that such people know nothing of God .. It is when a man entering into his closet , and from that to the secret place of God , meets for the first time with Him as a righteous God in Christ , and when God at the same time meets with the sinner as a returning and believing child , saying Abba Father , that the sinner is reconciled to God , and united to the Saviour
And what follows ? Only the same thing again and again till his dying day . The duty of Christ's religion is in fact just this , that the believing sinner cannot help from day to day coming , and coming always newly , and yet always in the same way, to his reconciled God and Father in Christ Jesus.
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