October 20 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"O LORD, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds" (Ps. 116:16).

Devotional

It is striking, and important in the instruction it conveys, that, among all the examples of deep humility, self-abasement, consciousness and confession of sin recorded of the saints in the Word, not one appears to offer an instance of denying or undervaluing the Spirit's work in the heart.

As keen as was the sense of unworthiness felt by Jacob, David, Job, Isaiah, Peter, Paul, and others—as deep as was their conviction, and as humiliating as were their confessions of sin's exceeding sinfulness—not one expression seems to betray a denial of the work of the Holy Spirit in their souls. They felt, mourned, wept, and confessed as men called of God, pardoned, justified, adopted; not as men who had never tasted that the Lord was gracious, and who therefore were utter strangers to the operation of the Spirit upon their hearts. They acknowledged their sinfulness and their backslidings as converted men, always ready and eager to crown the Spirit in his work.

But what can grieve the tender loving heart of the Spirit more deeply than a denial of his work in the soul? And yet, there is a perpetual tendency to this in the unbelieving doubts, legal fears, and gloomy forebodings to which those saints yield, who, at every discovery of the sin that dwells in them, resign themselves to the painful conviction that God has given them over to believe a lie!

To such we earnestly say, Do not thus grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Deep self-abasement, the consciousness of utter unworthiness, does not necessarily involve a denial of the indwelling grace in the heart. Yes, this blessed state is perfectly consistent with the most elevated hope of eternal life. He who can confess himself the "foremost sinner" (1 Tim. 1:15) and "the very least of all the saints" (Eph. 3:8), is most likely to acknowledge, "I know whom I have believed" (2 Tim. 1:12); "He loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).

What? Is it all fiction that you have believed? Is it all a delusion that you have experienced? Have you been grasping at a shadow, believing a lie, and fighting as one who beats the air? Are you willing to yield your hope, and throw away your confidence? What? Have you never known the plague of your own heart, the sweetness of godly sorrow at the foot of the cross? Have you never felt your heart beat one throb of love to Jesus? Has his dear name never broken in sweet cadence on your ear? Are you willing to admit that all the grief you have felt, all the joy you have experienced, and all the blessed anticipations you have known, were but "cleverly devised myths" (2 Pet. 1:16), a lie of the wicked one, a moral hallucination of the mind?

Oh, do not thus grieve the Holy Spirit of God! Do not deny or undervalue his blessed work within you! What if you have been led into deeper discoveries of your fallen nature, your unworthiness, vileness, insufficiency, and backsliding from God? We ask, whose work is this? Whose, but that same blessed, loving Spirit whom you are thus wounding, quenching, grieving, denying?

How many whose eye may trace this page are in this very state—not merely saying hard and bitter things against themselves, but also against the blessed, loving, faithful Spirit of God—calling grace nature, denying his work in them, and, in a sense most painful to his tender heart, speaking against the Holy Spirit?

Come, Holy Spirit, come;
let thy bright beams arise;
dispel the darkness from our minds,
and open all our eyes.

(Joseph Hart, 1759)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2011.