Now, mark that at the very time that the guilt of sin is taken away and blessedness is bestowed, it happens unto the forgiven man that he undergoes a change of nature. The work of the Spirit is linked with the work of the Son, when the Son removes guilt, the Spirit removes guile. He is not content to make the outside of the cup and platter clean and leave the inward part filthy, but he cries for inward cleansing and for renewal in the hidden fountains of thought and action. I beseech You cut from my heart this dreadful cancer of sin, even though the painful knife must follow every root of the hideous evil, for I desire Truth in the inward parts and the complete eradication of the love of sin.
Short, prompt, soldier-like, here is the whole of it, "Forward! Forward!" If you have been sitting down or tempted to go back, "Forward!" Forward! Forward at once and on the spot! Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. If He says, "Forward," and it is into the Red Sea or into a gulf of fire, forward you must go. Deliver to them the message of the Gospel, "Forward, Sinner, forward to the Cross! Forward to the five wounds! Forward to the bloody sweat and to the crown of thorns!"
I point you away from all ministries to Jesus Christ, the Minister of the New Covenant, who alone can save your souls! There was never such a mass of love as Jesus is! He speaks no harsh words to coming sinners, He gives them mercy liberally and upbraids not. Has He not said, "I will receive them graciously and love them freely"? Oh, come to Jesus! All the world is not bound up in a Pharisee's phylactery, nor held in chains by a philosopher's new fancy. What fools they would have been to have been satisfied with a mere report of other people's cures without going to the great Physician to obtain healing for themselves!
The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There is, then, an abundance of healing power in Jesus Christ and His salvation. Not only is His fruit sweet and nourishing, but the leaves, the little things, as it were, about Christ, are full of healing virtue. These healing leaves change the life blood, affect the spirits and make the nature other than it was before. See it purged of every evil and see in it the great conduit Head, from which abundant streams of healing flow down to men below!
I have loved you with an everlasting love. That is to say, "I have drawn you because I intend to save you to everlasting. I would not have called you by My Grace if I had meant to ever leave you to perish." Have you been drawn away from the love of your old sin? Have you, to sum up all, been made a new creature in Christ Jesus? Then, never doubt your election and never doubt your glorification! The only reason for God's love to us is that He will love us. From that fountain of His own dateless love springs our effectual calling and everything else that comes to us!
Should we not labor to realize more of HIM, taking in the whole Truth of God concerning His Person and love by meditation, contemplation, understanding and reverent simplicity? Let nothing lie by, let us eat and drink all the stores of the banquet of love! I desire that you may grow up, you who are new-born into the Christian family, to become fathers and mothers in Israel; but this cannot be, unless you as new-born babes desire the unadulterated milk of the word, that you may grow thereby. He turns to the holy page with ever new delight; he seeks the blessing of the man who meditates in God’s law, both day and night. “I have loved thee with an everlasting love,” is not this a heavenly assurance?
If you love Him, you must give Him this. True love next shows itself in obedience. If I love Jesus, I shall do as He bids me. He is my Husband, my Lord, I call Him, "Master." "If you love Me," He says, "keep My commandments." If we truly love our Lord we shall at once press to the front and begin the "work of faith and labor of love." Has not the Master been known to show His love to us in deeds?
And then may there arise out of your own hearts the perfume of another love, born of the first, and like unto it, the love of your renewed hearts towards your God. This love is a spark of the eternal flame of God's love for you, may it never be quenched! But when He chides us for withholding our love-tokens, it is because He values our love and is grieved when it grows cold.
The reason why streams of love flow from God is just this, it is according to His Nature. He is a fountain, so the blessing must flow from Him. He is a sun, so He must shine. It is not only because we need His love, but because, "God is Love," that His love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us.