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{The Application
Application for the Godly
Directions for Carrying On a Constant Holy Course of Life
Walk on Your Way in the Name of Christ, or Live by Faith}
Walk on your way in the name of Christ. That is, live by faith. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 ESV). The strength of a Christian is his faith; the strength of faith is Christ. And the strength of Christ is put into the promises.317 If you want to live to God, live by faith. If you want to live by faith, go often to the promises.
Study the promises and how they are given abundantly and without cost. There is grace in the promises. Study the fullness of the promises; they have Christ in them, and with Him is all things: wisdom, righteousness, strength, food, clothing, lands, friends, and safety. Study the sureness of the promises; there is “yes and amen” attached to them. All the promises of God are yes and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20).
Embrace the promises; believe that God is true.
Make certain of your participation in the promises, and thus clearly understand that they are reliable for you personally.
Treasure up in your memory a stock and store of particular promises that will answer every need in your life in order that you may always have a Word ready to hand on which to rely.
And then, on the credit of God’s Word, venture out on your Lord in any duty, despite any sufferings He brings your way, despite whatever difficulty you see in the way, despite whatever danger you see in the way, and despite whatever lack or weakness you see growing on you. Go on, trusting in Christ for success in your duties, for support under your trouble, and for supply of your needs according to His Word.
It may be when you look ahead of you at a holy life that you will say, “This is indeed a beautiful and blessed life if I could attain to it. But oh! I see there is so much to be done and so much to be borne that I am in great doubt how I will ever be able to go through with it.”
The Lord requires me, if I will follow Him, to deny myself. This first step stymies me. No doubt I will stumble and fall at the very threshold of Christianity. Deny myself! Alas, I cannot deny my friend or companion. I cannot deny my enemy who entices me to sin. If Satan just speaks a word to me to draw me aside to iniquity, he immediately prevails. And must I still deny myself when I see how unable I am to deny my enemy? I cannot. I cannot do it. Why, it is here that your faith, if you will consult with it, will furnish you with this encouragement: although you are able to do nothing of yourself, you are able to do all things through Christ: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13 NKJV).
Again, you say, “The Lord requires me to make my heart clean, to purge my conscience, and to crucify my lusts. But who am I that I should ever think of doing such great works? I could as easily make a new world as a new heart. I can as well stop the sun in its course as stop my lusts in theirs. I can as easily dry up the springs of the great deep as clean the fountain of my corrupt heart and purge myself from an evil conscience.”318 I would say it, but now your faith will tell you: he who orders you to cleanse your heart has also said to you, “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols” (Ezekiel 36:25 NASB). Your faith will carry your fountain of sin to that fountain that is opened for sin and for uncleanness, in which fountain you may wash and be clean (Zechariah 13:1). Your faith will tell you, “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin” (Romans 6:6 ESV). And, the same mouth that commands you—“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness” (Romans 6:12–13 ESV)—that same mouth also promises you, “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14 ESV).
But you may add more: “The Lord commands me to keep my heart, my tongue, and my eyes, to make straight steps for my feet, to not turn aside to iniquity, to turn away from all temptations to sin, and to abstain from all appearances of evil. With many similar words He has charged me to walk in all His commandments, keep all His statutes and judgments, and to do them. These are hard sayings; who can bear them?” I would say it, but now your faith will tell you that He who said these things also said one Word more that will make all this easy: “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (Ezekiel 36:26–27 NASB).
Once more you reply: “But Christ commands me to take up my cross, to suffer with Him, to part with all I have, and to lay down my life for His Name. I do so little for His Name; am I likely to ever be able to suffer for His Name? I am pressed so hard in every light affliction that befalls me; is it possible that I would be able to resist to the point of my blood being shed? The Lord pardon me; I have found that a little shame or reproach is more than I can well bear; a scoff or scorn against me for Christ brings forth such impatience in me. I have run with footmen and they have wearied me. How then will I contend against horses (Jeremiah 12:5)? But, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV). Faith says that the Lord will lay on you no more than you can carry. He will either increase your strength or not increase your burdens. He who has given you a little strength to go through small trials has said that, if he lays more load on you, He will give you more strength to bear it. And you may trust Him. The Lord will either enable you to die for His Name or He will not call you to it.
Christians, believe God. To him who believes all things are possible. And if you believe, they will be given you. The Lord has said that He will be your helper (Psalm 54:4; Hebrews 13:6), and therefore you may boldly say, “The Lord is my helper.” Trust in the Lord and keep His way. Trust in the Lord and be doing good. And truly you will be fed, truly you will be aided, and truly you will be supported and comforted. Commit your way to Him, and whatever difficulty there is in your work, He will bring your work to completion. Commit the keeping of yourselves to Him, and you will be kept by His power through faith to salvation. He who called you is faithful, and He will do it. Distrust yourselves as much as you want. But do not distrust your Rock. You are weak creatures, but you have a strong God. You have empty hearts, but a full Savior. You have only a poor stock in yourselves, but a rich stockpile in the promise. From the promise you will have such a continual supply that your bin of flour will not be exhausted nor your jar of oil spent (1 Kings 17:14) until you have finished your work and your course of life. Hang on to your crucified Lord. Take hold of His covenant. Take hold of His strength. Go forth in His strength and Name, and then fear not. Your difficulties will vanish, your way will prosper, your souls will flourish, you will have your fruit to holiness,319 and everlasting life will be your end.
317It is regrettable that Alleine did not expound on this further. God cannot lie. He knows all things fully and instinctively and brings all things to pass. Thus, if somehow God were to fail to keep a promise, He would be imperfect; He would be something other than God. Therefore, all of the strength, might, power, glory, existence, and being of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, are behind all of His promises, even the least of them. If somehow it had to be, God would throw a million galaxies into the garbage bin before breaking even the least of His promises to even the least of His people.
318These thoughts do not at all depict vain excuses, but depict someone who has an accurate knowledge of his and the human condition generally. We do not wrestle against mere flesh and blood, but against the terrible power of our own sin and against the powers of darkness (Ephesians 6:12). The world is thickly littered with the wreckage of the lives of those, saints and sinners alike, who have thought that they could clean up their lives by their own strength. By way of illustration of the power of sin, consider the devil who has seen God and knows he is bound for Hell. You would think that he would repent and cut his losses, but he can only sin. Such is the bondage and corruption of sin. Let the reader be reminded that sincere holy duties are God’s appointed means of grace; being God appointed, God does really and truly use them to give us strength from Him.
319“But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life” (Romans 6:22 NKJV).
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