The eyes of the LORD are in every place, Keeping watch upon the evil and the good. (RV)
Proverbs 15:3.
Shortly after leaving school, I said to an electrician after observing his marked attention to detail; "Why make all the effort to be so tidy? the wires can't be seen-they are hidden under the floor boards!" To which he replied; "Nothing is hidden from the Lord!" His reply somewhat perplexed me, and I didn't ask him to clarify what he meant; I kept quiet for he was a much older man (yes-youngsters did respect their elders back then!), and just took him to be some kind of religious nut case!
Being honest with myself (a good place to start!) even as a true believer, if I thought I could get away scot-free (that is free from eternal punishment from God), would I consciously commit a sin today? I struggle with this, for I believe that I would, wouldn't we all? no judgment, and yet the promise of eternal bliss! but how can I sin? for Jesus said "if you love Me, keep My commandments" John 14:15! To consciously sin is to trample "under foot the Son of God, and count the blood of the covenant ...an unholy thing." Heb.10:29. God's word says there is a judgment coming on this world! So much for the *Wesleyan holiness movement; which teaches that a man can be perfectly holy this side of the first resurrection! How be so? in bodies ravaged with sin about to perish! But, really, my question is not a real one, for it is hypothetical, and such questions are useless. Regardless, even "man at his best state is altogether vanity." Psalm 39:5, for sin is part of our fallen nature, we cannot escape from it, it is the warp and woof of our very being; it permeates our entire structure. David said it all; "I was shapen in iniqity in sin did my mother conceive me." Psalm 51:15. Sin is natural to us, is not a single sinful thought a sin? (no matter how little it is?) and who bar the Holy One hasn't had a single sinful thought? Is not Romans 7 the experience of the true believer?
The Scripture says; "Be not wise in thine own eyes: Fear the LORD and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones." Proverbs 3:7-8.
It is the fear of the LORD that makes one depart from evil, for the true believer's conscience is pricked at every 'little' sin, even 'little' sinful thoughts . Isn't it this fear of the Lord that restrains the true believer? The fact is he knows that All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. 2 Tim. 3:16. So, when a true believer knows that the eyes of the Lord are in every place, he knows that God is keeping a close watch on him-what greater incentive can there be not to sin? Righteousness is imputed to the true believer, not imparted as the Romanists would have us believe, it is a legal transaction, God in Christ "purchased with His own blood" (Acts 20:28) His elect. There is no baptismal regeneration; regeneration is God's work alone, His people being "quickened by the Spirit." (1 Pet.3:18). Yet, for all this wonderful work of God's gracious Spirit, while remaining in the flesh there remains two natures in the "born again" believer; hence the admonition in Rom.12:2; "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." Sanctification is a life-long process! we are never perfected in the flesh only at the first resurrection, until then we are to "grow in grace" (2 Pet.3:18) and Peter should know! In this life "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that you would." (Gal.5:17) see Romans 7:23, better still, read the whole chapter.
Of the holiness movement, to say as Robert Pearsall Smith does, that he is "as a dead miser in the presence of a bag of gold" when tempted with sin. B.W. Newton (1807-1899) writes in his Thoughts on Scriptural Subjects (Respecting Sinlessness):
"The writer has drawn no clear distinction between the temptation of Him in whom no sin was, and the temptation of those in whom sin is. Yet, without the the recognition of this distinction between the Holy One and ourselves, it is impossible that any right conclusion can be arrived at on the question
we are considering."
Newton in the preface to his treatise writes of this "modern doctrine" as he called it back then (1871):
"To oppose any who seem desirous of aiding the progress of God's people in the way of holiness, is a painful duty. Yet it is a duty, if in such efforts any deflection from God's revealed Truth be traceable. The Spirit of holiness is also the Spirit of Truth. He cannot swerve from that which He has Himself spoken. The Scripture is His testimony; consequently, the authority of Scripture, and the authority of the Holy Ghost, are co-equal. Every divergence, therefore, from the testimony of the Holy Ghost, must be anxiously withstood.
In recent history the Pentecostal Holiness movement was given something of a "shot in the arm" by Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones (MLJ), for he taught (in his later life) that the so-called spiritual gifts had not ceased, and that the baptism of the Holy Spirit was a distinct experience from conversion, and that you should seek this baptism!* I had always been wary of MLJ for this reason and therefore never read any of his work apart from a small pamphlet. Upon reading an excellent treatise by Paul Fahy (Understanding Ministries) on "Modern Antinomianism" (2nd July 2019) I discovered exactly where MLJ was in error. MLJ did not understand the two conflicting natures that exist in the regenerate man, he gave licence to one naturism and fuelled the Pentecostal error.
*See my post on MLJ; 28th July 2018.
Of the holiness movement, to say as Robert Pearsall Smith does, that he is "as a dead miser in the presence of a bag of gold" when tempted with sin. B.W. Newton (1807-1899) writes in his Thoughts on Scriptural Subjects (Respecting Sinlessness):
"The writer has drawn no clear distinction between the temptation of Him in whom no sin was, and the temptation of those in whom sin is. Yet, without the the recognition of this distinction between the Holy One and ourselves, it is impossible that any right conclusion can be arrived at on the question
we are considering."
Newton in the preface to his treatise writes of this "modern doctrine" as he called it back then (1871):
"To oppose any who seem desirous of aiding the progress of God's people in the way of holiness, is a painful duty. Yet it is a duty, if in such efforts any deflection from God's revealed Truth be traceable. The Spirit of holiness is also the Spirit of Truth. He cannot swerve from that which He has Himself spoken. The Scripture is His testimony; consequently, the authority of Scripture, and the authority of the Holy Ghost, are co-equal. Every divergence, therefore, from the testimony of the Holy Ghost, must be anxiously withstood.
In recent history the Pentecostal Holiness movement was given something of a "shot in the arm" by Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones (MLJ), for he taught (in his later life) that the so-called spiritual gifts had not ceased, and that the baptism of the Holy Spirit was a distinct experience from conversion, and that you should seek this baptism!* I had always been wary of MLJ for this reason and therefore never read any of his work apart from a small pamphlet. Upon reading an excellent treatise by Paul Fahy (Understanding Ministries) on "Modern Antinomianism" (2nd July 2019) I discovered exactly where MLJ was in error. MLJ did not understand the two conflicting natures that exist in the regenerate man, he gave licence to one naturism and fuelled the Pentecostal error.
*See my post on MLJ; 28th July 2018.
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