“For
it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good
pleasure.”-Philippians
2:13 [KJV]
When
God has worked in a man "to will," and not only worked in
him "to will," but also worked in him "to do;"
when He has made him willing to flee from the wrath to come; willing
to be saved by the atoning blood and justifying righteousness of
Jesus; willing to be saved by sovereign grace as a sinner undone
without hope, and glad to be saved in whatever way God is pleased to
save him; willing to pass through the fire, to undergo affliction,
and to walk in the strait and narrow path, willing to take up the cross
and follow Jesus, willing to bear all the troubles which may come
upon him, and all the slanders which may be heaped upon his name;
when God has made him willing to be nothing, and to have nothing but
as God makes him the one, and gives him the other:and besides working
in him "to will," has worked in him "to do,"
worked in him faith to believe, hope whereby he anchors in the
finished work of Christ, and love whereby he cleaves to Him with
purpose of heart; when all this has been "with fear and
trembling," not rushing heedlessly on in daring presumption, not
buoyed up by the good opinion of others, not taking up his religion
from ministers and books; but by a real genuine work of the Holy
Ghost in the conscience; when he has thus worked out with fear and
trembling what God has worked in, he has got at salvation; at
salvation from wrath to come, from the power of sin, from an empty
profession; at salvation from the flesh, from the delusions of Satan,
from the blindness and ignorance
of his own heart; he has got at a salvation which is God's salvation,
because God has worked in him to will and to do of His good pleasure.
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