The Test of Discipleship
Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/OY7hAkMx-fg?list=PL4ByrircmXL7byOGrccow6FzaDRVol_C
There is no evidence of genuine repentance unless it works reformation.
The love of influence and the desire for the esteem of others may produce a well-ordered life. Self-
Who has the heart? With whom are our thoughts? Of whom do we love to converse?
The things they once hated they now love, and the things they once loved they hate.
The soul that is transformed by the grace of Christ will admire His divine character; but if we do not see our own moral deformity, it is unmistakable evidence that we have not had a view of the beauty and excellence of Christ.
There are two errors against which the children of God----especially need to guard.
The first, is that of looking to their own works, trusting to anything they can do, to bring themselves into harmony with God.
The opposite and no less dangerous error is that belief in Christ releases men from keeping the law of God; that since by faith alone we become partakers of the grace of Christ, our works have nothing to do with our redemption.
The law of God is an expression of His very nature; If our hearts are renewed in the likeness of God, will not the law of God be carried out in the life? We do not earn salvation by our obedience; for salvation is the free gift of God, to be received by faith. But obedience is the fruit of faith. The condition of eternal life is now just what it always has been,--just what it was in Paradise before the fall of our first parents,--perfect obedience to the law of God, perfect righteousness.
There are those who have known the pardoning love of Christ and who really desire to be children of God, yet they realize that their character is imperfect, their life faulty, and they are ready to doubt whether their hearts have been renewed by the Holy Spirit. To such I would say, Do not draw back in despair. We shall often have to bow down and weep at the feet of Jesus because of our shortcomings and mistakes, but we are not to be discouraged.
Even if we are overcome by the enemy, we are not cast off, not forsaken and rejected of God. No; Christ is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
A person may not be able to tell the exact time or place, or trace all the chain of circumstances in the process of conversion; but this does not prove him to be unconverted.
Christ said to Nicodemus, The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit. John 3:8. Like the wind, which is invisible, yet the effects of which are plainly seen and felt, is the Spirit of God in its work upon the human heart.