The soul's natural element Before the soul can know anything about salvation, it must learn deeply and experimentally the nature of sin, and of itself, as stained and polluted by sin. It is proud, and needs to be humbled. It is careless, and needs to be awakened. It is alive, and needs to be killed. It is full, and requires to be emptied. It is whole, and needs to be wounded. It is clothed, and requires to be stripped. The soul is, by nature . . . self-righteous; self-seeking; buried deep in worldliness and carnality; utterly blind and ignorant; filled with . . . presumption, arrogance, conceit and enmity; hateful to all that is heavenly and spiritual. Sin, in all its various forms, is the soul's natural element. Some of the features of the unregenerate nature of man are . . . covetousness, lust, worldly pleasure, desire of the praise of men, an insatiable thirst after self-advancement, a complete abandonment to all that can please and gratify every new desire of the heart, an utter contempt and abhorrence of everything that restrains or defeats its mad pursuit of what it loves. Education, moral restraints, or the force of habit, may restrain the outbreaking of inward corruption, and dam back the mighty stream of indwelling sin, so that it shall not burst all its bounds, and desolate the land. But no moral check can alter human nature. A chained tiger is a tiger still. "The Ethiopian cannot change his skin, nor the leopard his spots." To make man the direct contrary of what he originally is; to make him . . . love God instead of hating Him; fear God, instead of mocking Him; obey God, instead of rebelling against Him; to do this mighty work, and to effect this wonderful change, requires the implantation of a new nature by the immediate hand of God Himself. Natural light, natural love, natural faith, natural obedience, in a word, all natural religion, is here useless and ineffectual. Godly sorrow Godly sorrow springs from a view of a suffering Savior, and manifests itself by . . . hatred of self, abhorrence of sin, groaning over our backslidings, grief of soul for being so often entangled by our lusts and passions, and is accompanied by . . . softness, meltings of heart, flowings of love to the Redeemer, indignation against ourselves, and earnest desires never to sin more. But our coward flesh shrinks from them!
"I have refined you but not in the way silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering. " Isaiah 48:10 What benefit is there in afflictions? Does God send them without an object in view? Do they come merely, as the men of the world think, by chance? No! There is benefit intended by them. The branch cannot bear fruit unless it be pruned. The love of sin cannot be cast out; the soul cannot be meekened, humbled, softened, and made contrite; the world cannot be embittered; the things of time and sense cannot be stripped of their false hue and their magic appearance-- except through affliction. Our greatest blessings usually spring from our greatest afflictions --they prepare the heart to receive them; they empty the vessel of the poisonous ingredients which have filled it, and fit it to receive gospel wine and milk. To be without . . . these afflictions, these griefs, these trials, these temptations, is to write ourselves destitute of grace. But our coward flesh shrinks from them!
We are willing to walk to heaven; but not to walk there in God's way. Though we see in the Scripture that the path to glory is a rough and rugged way ; yet when our feet are planted in that painful and trying path , we shrink back; our coward flesh refuses to walk in that road. God therefore, as a sovereign, brings those afflictions upon us which He sees most fit for our profit and His glory, without ever consulting us, without ever allowing us a choice in the matter. And He will generally cause our afflictions to come from the most unexpected source, and in a way most cutting to our feelings--in the way that of all others we would least have chosen--and yet in a way which of all others, is most for our profit. God deals with us like a surgeon dealing with a diseased organ. How painful the operation! How deep the knife cuts! How long it may be before the wound is healed! Yet every stroke of the knife is indispensable! A skillful and faithful surgeon would not do his duty if he did not dissect it to the very bottom. As pain before healing is necessary, and must be produced by the knife; so spiritually, we must be wounded and cut in our souls, as long, and as deeply as God sees needful , that in His own time we may receive the consolation. Do the afflictions we pass through humble us? Do they deaden the love of the world in our hearts? Do they purge out hypocrisy? Do they bring us more earnestly to the throne of grace? Do they discover to us sins that we have not before seen? Do they penetrate into our very hearts? Do they lay bare the corrupt fountain that we carry within us? Do they search and test us before a heart-searching God? Do they meeken and soften our spirit? "I have refined you but not in the way silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering. " Isaiah 48:10

The filthy holes and puddles in which it grovels " The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?" Jerem. 17:9 The sin of our fallen nature is a very mysterious thing. We read of "the mystery of iniquity". Sin has depths which no human plumbline ever fathomed, and lengths which no mortal measuring line ever yet measured out. Thus the way in which sin sometimes seems to sleep; and at other times to awake with renewed strength; its active, irritable, impatient, restless nature; the many shapes and colors it wears; the filthy holes and puddles in which it grovels ; the corners into which it creeps; its deceitfulness; its hypocrisy; its craftiness; its persuasiveness; its intense selfishness; its utter recklessness; its desperate madness; its insatiable greediness; are secrets, painful secrets, only learned by bitter experience. " The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?" Jerem. 17:9

The Lord's secret power in our souls? " He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; and increases strength to the weak." Is. 40:29 The Lord's people are often in the state that they have no might. All their power seems exhausted, and their strength completely drained away; sin appears to have gotten the mastery over them; and they feel as if they had neither will nor ability to run the race set before them, or persevere in the way of the Lord. Now what has kept us to this day? Some of you have made a profession ten, twenty, thirty, or forty years. What has kept us? When powerful temptations were spread for our feet, what preserved us from falling headlong into them? When we felt the workings of strong lusts, what kept us from being altogether carried captive by them? When we look at the difficulties of the way, the perplexities which our souls have had to grapple with, the persecutions and hard blows from sinners and saints that we have had to encounter--what has still kept in us a desire to fear God, and a heart in some measure tender before Him? When we view the . . . infidelity, unbelief, carnality, worldly-mindedness, hypocrisy, pride, and presumption of our fallen nature, what has kept us still . . . believing, hoping, loving, longing, and looking to the Lord? When we think of our . . . deadness, coldness, torpidity, rebelliousness, perverseness, love to evil, aversion to good, and all the abounding corruptions of our nature, what has kept us from giving up the very profession of religion, and swimming down the powerful current that has so long and so often threatened to sweep us utterly from the Lord? Is it not the putting forth of the Lord's secret power in our souls? Can we not look back, and recall to mind our first religious companions; those with whom we started in the race; those whom we perhaps envied for their greater piety, zeal, holiness, and earnestness; and with which we painfully contrasted our own sluggishness and carnality; admiring them, and condemning ourselves? Where are they all, or the greater part of them? Some have embraced soul-destroying errors; others are buried in a worldly religious system; and others are wrapped up in delusion and fleshly confidence. Thus, while most have fallen into the snares of the devil; God, by putting forth His secret power in the hearts of His fainting ones , keeps His fear alive in their souls; holds up their goings in His paths that their footsteps slip not; brings them out of all their temptations and troubles; delivers them from every evil work; and preserves them unto His heavenly kingdom. He thus secures the salvation of His people by His own free grace. How sweet and precious it is . . . to have our strength renewed; to have fresh grace brought into the heart; to feel the mysterious sensations of renovated life; to feel the everlasting arms supporting the soul . . . fighting our battles for us, subduing our enemies, overcoming our lusts, breaking our snares, and delivering us out of our temptations!

God's house? In the New Testament Scriptures, we find mention made in several places of "the house of the God." The New Testament never, in any one instance, means, by "the house of God," any material building. It has come to pass, through the traditions received from the fathers, that . . . buildings erected by man, collections of bricks and mortar, piles of squared and cemented stones, are often called "the house of God." In ancient Popish times they invested a consecrated building with the title of " God's house ", thus endeavoring to make it appear as though it were a holy place in which God specially dwelt. They thus drew off the minds of the people from any internal communion with God, and possessed them with the idea that He was only to be found in some holy spot, consecrated and sanctified by rites and ceremonies. The same leaven of the Pharisees has infected the Church of England; and thus she calls her consecrated buildings, her piles of stone and cement, "churches," and "houses of God." And even those who profess a purer faith, who dissent from her unscriptural forms, have learned to adopt the same carnal language, and even they, through a misunderstanding of what "the house of God" really is, will call such a building as we are assembled in this morning, "the house of God." How frequently does the expression drop from the pulpit, and how continually is it heard at the prayer meeting, "coming up to the house of God," as though any building now erected by human hands could be called the house of the living God. It arises from a misunderstanding of the Scriptures, and is much fostered by that priestcraft which is in the human heart, inciting us to believe that God is to be found only in certain buildings set apart for His service.

When the Holy Spirit preaches the gospel We often know the theory of the gospel, before we know the experience of the gospel. We often receive the doctrines of grace into our judgment , before we receive the grace of the doctrines into our soul . We therefore need to be . . . brought down, humbled, tried, stripped of every prop; that the gospel may be to us . . . more than a sound, more than a name, more than a theory, more than a doctrine, more than a system, more than a creed; that it may be . . . soul enjoyment, soul blessing, and soul salvation. When the Holy Spirit preaches the gospel to the poor in spirit, the humbled, stripped, and tried--it is a gospel of glad tidings indeed to the sinner's broken heart.

We get entangled with some idol Wherever the grace of God is, it constrains its partaker to desire to live to His honor and glory. But he soon finds the difficulty of so doing. Such is . . . the weakness of the flesh , the power of sin , the subtlety of Satan , the strength of temptation , and the snares spread on every side for our feet, that we can neither do what we want, nor be what we want. Before we are well aware, we get entangled with some idol , or drawn aside into some indulgence of the flesh, which brings darkness into the mind, and may cut us out some bitter work for the rest of our days. But we thus learn not only the weakness of the flesh, but where and in whom all our strength lies. And as the grace of the Lord Jesus , in its suitability, in its sufficiency and its super-aboundings, becomes manifested in and by the weakness of the flesh; a sense of His wondrous love and care in so bearing with us, in so pitying our case, and manifesting mercy where we might justly expect wrath, constrains us with a holy obligation to walk in His fear and to live to His praise.

The sins and slips of the saints?
The Scriptures faithfully record the falls of believers . . . the drunkenness of Noah, the incest of Lot, the unbelief of Abraham, the peevishness of Moses, the adultery of David, the idolatry of Solomon, the pride of Hezekiah, the cowardice of Mark and the cursing and swearing of Peter. But why has the Holy Spirit left on record the sins and slips of the saints? First, that it might teach us that they were saved by grace as poor, lost, and ruined sinners; in the same way as we hope to be saved. Secondly, that their slips and falls might be so many beacons and warnings, to guard the people of God against being overtaken by the same sins; as the apostle speaks, "All these events happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us." And thirdly, that the people of God, should they be overtaken by sin, might not be cast into despair; but that from seeing recorded in the Scripture the slips and failings of the saints of old, they might be lifted up from their despondency, and brought once more to hope in the Lord.

Cain, Esau, Saul, Ahab, Judas
" Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death." 2 Cor. 7:10 These two kinds of repentance are to be carefully distinguished from each other; though they are often sadly confounded. Cain, Esau, Saul, Ahab, Judas, all repented. But their repentance was the remorse of natural conscience, not the godly sorrow of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. They trembled before God as an angry Judge, but were not melted into contrition before Him as a forgiving Father. They neither hated their sins nor forsook them. They neither loved holiness nor sought it. Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. Esau plotted Jacob's death. Saul consulted the witch of Endor. Ahab put honest Micaiah into prison. Judas hanged himself. How different from this forced and false repentance of a reprobate, is the repentance of a child of God; that true repentance for sin, that godly sorrow, that holy mourning which flows from the Spirit's gracious operations! Godly sorrow does not spring from a sense of the wrath of God in a broken law, but from His mercy in a blessed gospel; from a view by faith of the sufferings of Christ in the garden and on the cross; from a manifestation of pardoning love; and is always attended with self-loathing and self-abhorrence; with deep and unreserved confession of sin and forsaking it; with most hearty, sincere and earnest petitions to be kept from all evil; and a holy longing to live to the praise and glory of God.

Here, and here alone Standing then at the cross of our adorable Lord , we may see . . . the law thoroughly fulfilled, its curse fully endured, its penalties wholly removed, sin eternally put away, the justice of God amply satisfied, all His perfections gloriously harmonized, reconciliation completely effected, redemption graciously accomplished, and the church everlastingly saved. Here, and here alone , we see sin in its blackest colors, and holiness in its most attractive beauties. Here, and here alone , we see the love of God in its tenderest form, and the anger of God in its deepest expression. Here, and here alone , we see the eternal and unalterable displeasure of the Almighty against sin, and the rigid demands of His inflexible justice, and yet the tender compassion and boundless love of His heart to the election of grace. Here, and here alone , are obtained pardon and peace. Here, and here alone , penitential grief and godly sorrow flow from heart and eyes. Here, and here alone , is . . . sin subdued and mortified, holiness communicated, death vanquished, Satan put to flight, and happiness and heaven begun in the soul. What a holy meeting-place for repenting sinners and a sin-pardoning God! What a healing-place for guilty, yet repenting and returning backsliders! What a door of hope in the valley of Achor for the self-condemned and self-abhorred! What a safe spot for seeking souls! And what a blessed resorting-place for the whole family of grace in this valley of grief and sorrow.

Experimental knowledge "Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent." John 17:3 An experimental knowledge of Christ in the soul, is the only relief for sin's . . . poverty, guilt, leprosy, bankruptcy, and damnation. This is the true way of preaching Christ crucified; not the mere doctrine of the Cross, but a crucified Jesus experimentally known to the soul. I am deeply conscious of my own . . . baseness, ignorance, blindness and folly. But my malady is too deeply rooted to be healed by dry doctrines and speculative theological opinions. The blood of the Lamb, spiritually and supernaturally sprinkled and applied, is the only healing balm for a sin-sick soul. Friend, can you understand my riddle? I find that sin has such power over me, that though I call on the Lord again and again for deliverance, I seem to be as weak as ever when temptation comes. If a window were placed in my bosom , what filth and vileness would be seen by all. "O you hideous monster sin , What a curse, have you brought in!" I love it; I hate it. I want to be delivered from the power of it; and yet am not satisfied without drinking down its poisoned sweets. Sin is my hourly companion; and my daily curse. Sin is the breath of my mouth; and the cause of my groans. Sin is my incentive to prayer; and my hinderer of it. Sin made my Savior suffer; and makes my Savior precious. Sin spoils every pleasure; and adds a sting to every pain. Sin fits a soul for heaven; and ripens a soul for hell. Friend, can you understand my riddle? Is your heart, as my heart? Alas! Alas! We feel sin's power daily and hourly. We sigh and groan at times, to be delivered from the giant strength of our corruptions, which seem to carry us captive at their will. Though sin is a sweet morsel to our carnal mind, it grieves our soul. I am sure I must be a monument of grace and mercy , if saved from the guilt, curse, and power of sin!

My greatest enemy? I have ever found myself to be my greatest enemy . I never had a foe that troubled me so much as my own heart ; nor has any one ever wrought me half the mischief or given me half the plague that I have felt and known within. And it is a daily sense of this which makes me dread myself more than anybody that walks upon the face of the earth! Keep a watchful eye upon every inward foe; and if you fight, fight against the enemy that lurks and works in your own breast!

There are many devices in a man's heart
" There are many devices in a man's heart ; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. " Proverbs 19:21. The devices of our heart are generally to find some easy, smooth, flowery path. Whatever benefits we have derived from affliction , whatever mercies we have experienced in tribulation , the flesh hates and shrinks from such a path with complete abhorrence. And, therefore, there is always a secret devising in a man's heart . . . to escape the cross, to avoid affliction, and to walk in some flowery meadow, away from the rough road which cuts his feet, and wearies his limbs. Another "device in a man's heart" is, that he shall have worldly prosperity; that his children shall grow up around him, and when they grow up, he shall be able to provide for them in a way which shall be best suited to their station in life; that they shall enjoy health and strength and success; and that there shall not be any cutting affliction in his family, or fiery trial to pass through. Now these devices the Lord frustrates. What grief, what affliction, what trouble, is the Lord continually bringing into some families! Their dearest objects of affection removed from them, at the very moment when they seemed clasped nearest around their hearts! And those who are spared, perhaps, growing up in such a searedness of conscience and hardness of heart, and, perhaps, profligacy of life, that even their very presence is often a burden to their parents instead of a blessing; and the very children who should be their comfort, become thorns and briars in their sides! Oh, how the Lord overturns and brings to nothing the "devices of a man's heart" to make a paradise here upon earth. When a man is brought to the right spot, and is in a right mind to trace out the Lord's dealings with him from the first, he sees it was a kind hand which "blasted his gourds, and laid them low;" it was a kind hand that swept away his worldly prospects; which reduced him to natural as well as to spiritual poverty; which led him into exercises, trials, sorrows, griefs, and tribulations; because, in those trials he has found the Lord, more or less, experimentally precious. " There are many devices in a man's heart ." Now you have all your devices; that busy workshop is continually putting out some new pattern; some new fashion is continually starting forth from the depths of that ingenious manufactory which you carry about with you; and you are wanting this, and expecting that, and building up airy castles, and looking for that which shall never come to pass; for " there are many devices in a man's heart ; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. " And so far as you are children of God, that counsel is a counsel of wisdom and mercy. The purposes of God's heart are purposes of love and affection toward you, and therefore you may bless and praise God, that whatever be the devices of your hearts against God's counsel, they shall be frustrated, that He may do His will and fulfill all His good pleasure. All are more or less deeply infected with it " Are you seeking great things for yourself? Don't do it! "  Jeremiah 45:5 As we are led aside by the powerful workings of our corrupt nature, we are often seeking great things for ourselves. Riches, worldly comforts, respectability, to be honored, admired, and esteemed by men, are the objects most passionately sought after by the world. And so far as the children of God are under the influence of a worldly principle, do they secretly desire similar things. Nor does this ambition depend upon station in life. All are more or less deeply infected with it , until delivered by the grace of God. The poorest man in these towns has a secret desire in his soul after "great things," and a secret plotting in his mind how he may obtain them. But the Lord is determined that His people shall not have great things. He has purposed to pour contempt upon all the pride of man. He therefore nips all their hopes in the bud, crushes their flattering prospects, and makes them for the most part, poor, needy, and despised in this world. Whatever schemes or projects the Lord's people may devise that they may prosper and get on in the world, He rarely allows their plans to thrive. He knows well to what consequences it would lead; that this ivy creeping round the stem would, as it were, suffocate and strangle the tree. The more that worldly goods increase . . . the more the heart is fixed upon them, the more the affections are set upon idols, the more is the heart drawn away from the Lord. He will not allow His people to have their portion here below. He has in store for them a better city, that is a heavenly one, and therefore will not allow them to build and plant below the skies. A child of God may be secretly aiming at great things, such as respectability, bettering his condition in life, rising step by step in the scale of society. But the Lord will usually . . . disappoint these plans, defeat these projects, wither these gourds, and blight these prospects. He may reduce him to poverty, as He did Job; smite him with sickness, as He did Lazarus and Hezekiah; take away wife and children, as in the case of Ezekiel and Jacob; or He may bring trouble and distress into his mind by shooting an arrow out of His unerring bow into the conscience. God has a certain purpose to effect by bringing this trouble, and that is to pull him down from "seeking great things." For what is the secret root of this ambition? Is it not the pride of the heart? When the Lord, then, would lay this ambition low, He makes a blow at the root. He strips away fancied hopes, and breaks down rotten props, the great things (so through ignorance esteemed) sought for previously, and perhaps obtained, fall to pieces. " Are you seeking great things for yourself? Don't do it! "  Jeremiah 45:5 Ministers are often desirous of . . . " Are you seeking great things for yourself? Don't do it! "  Jeremiah 45:5 Ministers are often desirous of . . . a greater gift in preaching, a readier utterance, a more abundant variety, a more striking delivery than they possess. And this, not for the glory of God, but for the glory of the creature. Not that praise may be given God, but that pride, cursed pride, may be gratified; that they may be admired by men. My desire and aim is . . . not to deceive souls by flattery; not to please any party; not to minister to any man's pride or presumption; but simply and sincerely, with an eye to God's glory, with His fear working in my heart, to speak to the edification of His people. A minister who stands up with any other motives, and aiming at any other ends than the glory of God, and the edification of His people, bears no scriptural marks that he has been sent into the vineyard by God Himself. Have we nothing to give to Christ? Have we nothing to give to Christ? Yes! Our sins, our sorrows, our burdens, our trials, and above all the salvation and sanctification of our souls. And what has He to give us? What? Why . . . everything worth having! everything worth a moment's anxious thought! everything for time and eternity! O self! Self!
Oh, to be kept from myself; my . . . vile, proud, lustful, hypocritical, worldly, covetous, presumptuous, obscene self. O self! Self! Your desperate wickedness, your depravity, your love of sin, your abominable pollutions, your monstrous heart wickedness, your wretched deadness, hardness, blindness, and indifference. You are a treacherous villain , and, I fear, always will be such! Continual salvation? "I cried unto You; save me , and I shall keep Your testimonies." Psalm 119:146 If you know anything for yourself, inwardly and experimentally of . . . the evils of your heart, the power of sin, the strength of temptation, the subtlety of your unwearied foe, and that daily conflict between nature and grace, the flesh and the spirit, which is the peculiar mark of the living family of heaven; you will find and feel your need of salvation as a daily reality. There is present salvation : an inward, experimental, and continual salvation communicated out of the fullness of Christ as a risen Mediator. You need to be daily and almost hourly saved from the . . . guilt, filth, power, love, and practice of indwelling sin. "I cried unto You; save me , and I shall keep Your testimonies." Psalm 119:146