The Christian's old and new natures compared (Quality: Average)

[0:00] dependent entirely on the Lord for his help I ask your attention to chapter 3 of the epistle of Paul to Titus and I will read verses 3, 4 5 and 6 chapter 3 of the epistle to Titus verses 3, 4, 5 and 6 for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish disobedient, deceived serving divers thus and pleasures living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another but after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour

[1:22] I don't apologise it's a long text I hope you'll bear with me because I can't separate these verses it is it is a mercy too because in verse 3 we have the old nature and following that we have the evidence of the new nature the mercy will be if you can and I can also be brought to see that though the old nature hasn't changed the mercy and goodness of God has appeared what we are described and we ourselves also you and I as well as this dear apostle Paul and Titus we ourselves also were sometimes foolish and so on we still got the same natural heart we still got the same natural tendencies there's nothing changed in old nature not of wit are we better if we should be and may we be the subjects of God's grace and mercy and however deep are the truths that we are brought to embrace and believing by living faith not a scrap of difference does it make my friends to our old nature we're still in that place and we still will be till we draw our last breath we ourselves he's not boasting rather and using the word in a very much more humble way there's a humble boasting of a change we ourselves also were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived and so on and if you know your heart you'll say amen you'll say indeed with Paul so it is so it is and if the Lord left you for a minute so it would be in that epistle to the Ephesians the second chapter commences and you hattie quicken who were dead in trespasses and sins and the same word were is used here we also we ourselves also were

[4:04] I don't want to author holy writ my friends but what a mercy if it is so and we haven't got it written that we ourselves also are sometimes foolish would be very true but these words we've got the old man then in verse 3 and the effect of grace reveals to us the new man in those following three verses and it speaks remarkably and oh blessedly of a time a time within time which has made that sacred difference just the same again if you read Ephesians 2 it says after the first two verses or the first three verses it then says but God and there's the change and it's God that makes the change it isn't the turning of the natural mind of what might be more palatable something to boast about now it was that we were foolish disobedient and so on but now we're a little better than that you know one of the things about grace is this it will teach you that that still remains within the old man and you'll have to say indeed that you've grown in your own feelings worse rather than better because it's been shown to you and because you've been made aware of that host of sin that dwells within and when you were disobedient and foolish and deceived it was because you didn't know they dwelt within there dwelleth in us no good thing and it's only when it's shown to you and you're made to feel it you have to bow before it and say it is so it is so well my friends it's not to try to exalt the old man here what's in the world as I said in prayer is in my heart it is a mercy that grace has made a difference but you know an only grace will make a difference an only grace will subdue what's written in this third verse and if it should come to the surface as it does at times then we have to resort to the throne of grace to that refuge for sinners and beg that it may be washed away we have to seek forgiveness for even our thoughts

[6:52] I don't know whether you're troubled about sinful thoughts but I have to beg the Lord to remove them I have to plead with the Lord to put my mind and affections on more better things than the filth and rubbish of this world we ourselves also are sometimes disobedient deceived serving divers lust there's no need to go through them individually they are a multitude of wickedness they are a list as it were of our besetting sins and the nature that we have oh it's more than besetting sins we are engrossed in this service we are born in it and we live in it and our conversation is in it and it's nothing but it as we travel on in an unregenerate state you don't have to go back and say well I remember when I was foolish and so do

[7:54] I and it brings me to shame I remember when I was disobedient and it brings me to shame you no need to do that it's still there but the mercy my friends is that oh that you might see the need of grace that all these things shall indeed be subdued you might say well it's not my nature hateful and hating one another oh it's not my nature to do that isn't it isn't it my friends the Israel of God you know were not spiritual not all of them anyway not many of them but when the Lord brought them out of Egypt and brought them into the privations of the wilderness up went their natural tendency and replied and rebelled against Moses and against God and would have turned their feet and gone back to Egypt as they could have done hateful and hating one another and I tell you what you'll hate shall I you'll hate the truth when you're in unregenerate states you'll hate the truth and you'll find this if you ever try to reprove the world they'll turn on you and they'll turn on you and charge you with self righteousness and being good and so on my friends the nature hateful and hating one another sounds dreadful but it's true it's there and you find it my friends you have to confess it before the

[9:30] Lord but then again you know if the Lord in his mercy and through his grace puts you into a pathway where you've got to carry a cross and every child of God has a cross and it might be cross-ended providences as well and it might be a lot more other things that are such an adversity to the flesh where is the grace of submission unless it's given where is that willingness to fall under such a pathway decreed and appointed of God my friends without that grace of submission granted to them oh this hateful and hating one another is there my friends and it rises to the surface and that word which we sometimes hear quoted in effect we shall not have this man to reign over us is within us and godly men have had to confess in the trials and troubles or the crosses and the losses of the pathway that's rose up against rose up within them against the gracious and merciful

[10:42] God oh hateful and hating one another is not a language that's exaggerated it is a language my friends that describes the old man the unregenerate man that we that old man that old nature that even the child of God has to confess is there oh why should the apostle in the Philippians say to the church at Philippi let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus because the old man my friends and he used to preach against the old man and oh the grace that's needed to subdue the powers of that old man we ourselves but we must go on because it's a long text it's not because I want to bring four verses before you as I said it's rather because it is and it can't be separated and I hope through the day the Lord will so kindly help us and that you might receive the word as from the Lord but after that but after that the kindness and love of God our saviour toward man appeared after that after that old nature that old path that rebellious heart that idolatry the lust of every the sin of every lust in the natural heart after that what mercy there is in those words

[12:29] I don't know whether you looked as you sang that second hymn blessed with the pardon of a sin my soul within thy shade would lie well perhaps some of you didn't sing it because it's high language you say because I can't lay hold of the truth of it what did you feel when you sang the other two lines and sing the love that took me in while others sank in sin to die but after that the kindness and love of God our saviour toward man appeared oh as if the Lord no it's not as if the Lord there's nothing uncertain about our God and there's nothing uncertain about his work and there's nothing uncertain about a calling which is of God the decree and appointments of God shall come to pass and despite what is written of you and I in verse 3 that if in the decrees of eternity pass it shall be so then nothing shall prevent it

[13:46] Saul of Tarsus would have indeed would have thought it to be strange language but until it came to the borders of the land borders of the town or city of Damascus and there there was a line drawn you know I wouldn't want to be dramatic or emotional God forbid my friends but sovereign grace to align and from that moment onwards this fourth verse was applicable to the dear person Saul of Tarsus after that before it there was a living in these things there was a carelessness there was an indifference to truth and righteousness there was a deadness concerning eternity an unconcerned state but after that oh what decrees come to pass what mercy is seen in this after that but after that the kindness and love of God our

[14:59] Saviour toward man appeared oh those doctrines of election those truths of sovereign grace are set aside they are and always have been I've been reading of George Whitfield you know and he was very much attached to John Wesley and Charles Wesley but there came a separation and what was the separation regeneration that was the separation that was the truth that separated them may it not have separated them eternally I can't say but my friends it was a truth that separated regeneration the day and the place the time and the spot when these words came to pass but after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared when he put his hand to a work that no one else can do when he took a sinner into hand and under his control when he began to rule in him as well as rule over him every child of God in its lost and ruined state my friends is ruled over they cannot go to the extremes as they would do so they cannot destroy themselves they cannot go into places and spots because there is that hand of

[16:41] God upon them that shall prevent it and they shall never enter hell and neither shall they ever commit the unforgivable sin after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared some can look back to that time and place and spot when the fear of the Lord began to work within them when a sense of the wickedness of one's own heart was made apparent when the foolishness of this world began to impress upon their mind some can look back to those times so Tarsus could look back to that remarkable time when he entered into the work of Satan and God discharged him and put him into the work of the ministry and it was as clear as crystal in that man's experience it's the spot of ground and it brings me to say those words again to say

[17:55] I know the spot of ground where Jesus did they meet but after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared when you came to chapel as you always did when you sat in the Lord's house that's the general view my friends of this congregation not the complete view when you came to chapel as you always did and took your place sung your hymns bowled your head heard the word of God read and expounded but then there came another day but after that you know when John the Baptist was in prison he sent one of his disciples two of his disciples to Christ to ask art thou he that should come or do we look for another and the dear Lord

[18:56] Jesus in his compassion to John the Baptist said go show John again these things and various remarkable things were shown to John the Baptist how the deaf hear the blind saw but the last one in the list was this the poor had the gospel preached to them that's the last one and oh hear me my friends it's the best one but after that it's when you began to be in want it's when you began to sorrow in a measure over sin it was when the enlightening work of the spirit was like a knife and it divided my friends that night and it showed you your own evil heart it showed you as a sinner but a perishing sinner and it showed you too that in and of yourself there was no hope not in and of yourselves but after that the kindness and love of God our saviour toward man appeared do you attribute and I say it very carefully do you attribute the love where you are now in the things of

[20:18] God you may not be what you want to be but you have to truly say I'm not what I used to be but would you attribute that would you give the glory and the honour and the praise to this gracious God our saviour because of his kindness and love oh oh may you and I go back in this measure and in this direction and be able to trace the Lord's hand and trace the Lord's dealings with us for once he begins he never leaves but loves them to the end but after that the kindness and love of God our saviour and such was the love and kindness of God our saviour towards his people was instead of them condemning them to the pit for their sinful walk and pathway and hateful ways and divers lusts and pleasures instead of doing that he showed mercy oh I wouldn't want to tell you the secrets of my heart but I've known times in years past now when I have to say if

[21:34] God took me into the pit he would be righteous and just if he took my life away he would be righteous and just and I would be the sinner but after that the kindness and love of God our saviour appeared toward man appeared oh by demonstrating through his spirit divine blessing and mercy and grace and you say well it don't feel like that well would you change your lot to those in the world would you change your lot to one that's called a heretic and if you look in the biblical description of a heretic is one that has chosen a wrong path oh I know the catholics call us heretics but let them do as they will that doesn't matter but my friends what a heretic is is a person who has chosen the wrong path that oh the kindness and who can describe what this means well it's like signs of empty a well isn't it but after that the kindness and love of God our saviour appears loving kindness that's what it is loving kindness that's far greater description than kindness

[23:06] I'm not finding fault with Paul of course I'm not and all that lovely hymn that I believe I quoted I should have done last week where it speaks of loving kindness in every respect to the people of God awake my soul in joyful days and sing thy great redeemer's praise he justly claims a song from thee his loving kindness oh how free he saw me ruined in the fall yet loved me notwithstanding all he saved me from my lost estate his loving kindness oh how great my friends it doesn't belittle the saviour not one moment to call it kindness but if God is in your soul working my friends you'll see it's loving kindness loving kindness as an eternal work and the

[24:11] God of all grace the father of all mercies that hates sin that is just that is righteous that can't look on sin in any degree of allowance whose holy law is not to be tampered with not to be watered down who in himself can indeed on the one hand command that worlds shall be built and on the other hand can destroy worlds in a moment this great God and saviour that it is love and kindness kindness and love of God our saviour towards man appeared see the channel trace the channel my friends wicked men will say it starts with man to God scriptures of truth divine teaching will show you it comes from God to man there was set up on earth a ladder

[25:12] Jacob saw and that ladder was Christ oh there is a channel who opened a channel of mercy for me and it flows through Christ through his wounds through his loving heart to his people through the decrees and appointed blessings of the Trinity the two poor wretched sinners after that the kindness and love of God our saviour towards man appeared a wonder of wonders oh no wonder John Newton could pen such a word amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me oh my friends never ever try to improve upon the truth you cannot do so never improve upon the truth those descriptions of a sinner is truth and don't try to improve on it my friends if the Holy

[26:25] Spirit told John Newton he was a wretch every child of God is a wretch if the Holy Spirit taught the hymn writers that they were worms of earth every vessel of mercy is a worm of earth oh don't improve on the truth and say well I'm not quite like that my friends if the Lord through his mercy opens your eyes you'll feel the worst of sinners as this dear apostle was unto me you are less and the least of all saints this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief you will debate that very truth my friends with the apostle after that the kindness and love of God our saviour toward man appeared and it appeared you know in the garden of

[27:31] Eden it appeared there there's the first gospel promise it appeared when Adam and Eve fell and the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head two remarkable things are found in those words not the seed of man because Jesus Christ was not the seed of man it was he was the seed of the woman he was born of a woman but he was not conceived in the womb by a man man but he but he was not the bruising of the serpent's head but after that the kindness and love of God our saviour appeared it did in that blessed promise then in Genesis 3 it did throughout the scriptures of truth in the old dispensation it appeared it appeared in the sacrifices that is if he was godly and gracious in those days you could trace out the goodness the kindness and love of God our saviour towards man appeared you can see it in the sacrifices because they were a shadow of good things to come but a shadow and they were a poor shadow a very poor shadow my friends because they couldn't do what the sacrifice that was to come could do but then you know there's something personal about this and this is the prayer my friends of my poor soul for you all all of you who worship here that it might appear in you that it might appear by revelation to you that you might by blessed living faith behold this kindness and love why was

[29:32] I made to hear his voice and enter wilder's rue while thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than come oh if he calls you by his grace he'll call you to the throne of grace he'll open up within you a cry that only death will cease my friends you'll have to cry like the publican time and again you'll have to plead like the woman who worshipped Jesus Christ and said Lord help me if he's put a cry in your heart or if it's a groan a sigh an upward glancing of an eye my friends it's due to his kindness and love but then again if you can trace these ways working within you you know let me tell you this you'll never perish you'll never perish you can't perish it's you know when the promise of restoration and blessing to Israel in the days of Jeremiah was made was sounded forth by God to Jeremiah he said this if you can change day and night then these covenant promises can change but you can't change day and night and such is the power and such is the authority of the word and of the work of the blessed spirit in the soul my friends these cries and groans and sighs are evidences of life and it flows from this the kindness and love of God our Saviour oh it surely does my friends it must have a beginning and God is the beginning and the ending of true and living faith well the apostle said so in his letter to the

[31:29] Hebrews when he said the author and finisher of our faith but after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared oh that's a blessed day you know when it appears to a sinner when it appears to a sinner in his house or in his own house or it might appear to a sinner on a sick bed it might appear in the silent watches of the night when all around is quiet and peace it appears in the soul oh has it appeared and it will appear too in the desire for it it will appear in the going out after it it will be my friends such a blessed and sacred sight to see the kindness and love of God our Saviour that your very soul will go out for it and seek after it and you'll watch the people of

[32:32] God and you'll pray the Lord that those blessings and mercies that are seen in them that might be seen in you but what really you know could be described as the love the kindness and love of God in the provision of Jesus Christ in the sending of his old beloved son into the world kindness and love in the sacrifice kindness and love in the offering kindness and love in the heart of Jesus Christ for the worst of sinners kindness and love and his precious blood but after that the kindness and love of God our saviour toward man appeared oh Jesus in the sinner's place there's kindness and love wonderful mercy my friends when you can see the foundation of the comfort of such words a rest in Christ and a rest in the blessed trinity but then we have this word and the

[33:40] Lord knows what need there is you know for the apostle to write such words he was writing to the apostle Titus to Titus my own son after the common faith he was I understand converted under the ministry of the apostle Paul and as the word of God tells us he was the first bishop of the church of the Christians you know how sacredly true and yet so graciously simple and it must be ever maintained when you talk about God's work in the soul and you talk about when you try to preach about the work of the Holy Ghost in quickening and maintaining the life of God in the soul first convincing things and then presenting by faith the person and work of Christ as the only way of salvation you must establish one thing you know and one thing clearly and the

[34:50] Lord help every servant of God to establish the truth on the blessing of his kindness and love not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us oh away with this business of resting on anything short than the person and the work of Jesus Christ oh may it be far from our thoughts the effect of the kindness of love of God the effect of the mercy of God you know will be this that it will raise up in you a desire to put honour and glory where it should be and you'll go back and you'll look around for these works of righteousness and all you'll see is a sinful heart all you'll see is this catalogue of iniquity which is described in this third verse that's all you'll say oh there's plenty of people rest their salvation on works of righteousness which we have done but there is a work of righteousness you can rest on you know and that's the work of righteousness that Christ has done my hope is built on nothing less the poet said and my friends what was that hope built on

[36:13] Jesus blood and righteousness I dare not trust the sweetest frame that wholly lean on his DNA there's a work of righteousness but that's not what we have done it's what he has done what he has accomplished I remember reading many years ago the difference between the free willer and those under free grace was that the free willer keeps on doing things and those under free grace rest on what's done that's the simple difference but my friends it's an eternal difference they keep working at their religion they're building up these foundations of works but it's done it's accomplished it's finished and it's revealed it appears to man and it's loving kindness kindness and love not by works of righteousness which we have done and the works of righteousness come in one or two descriptions don't they the poet says clothed in a righteousness divine not creature righteousness but none and that is

[37:31] Christ and he who went to the end of the law he went to the end of the law not for himself but for his church and he went for righteousness sake and the saints of God shall have a covering you know in the eternity of glory and it will be a righteous covering unstained by sin wrought out by Jesus Christ and a covering to and it's a wonderful word to a sinner you listen to this imputed to them given to them clothed in it and appear before the judgment seat of Christ clothed in a righteousness divine oh you see the rents and the tears and the holes in the clothes of self righteousness oh it will dissolve under the eye of the judge you know oh it certainly will not by works of righteousness which we have done we can't do any works of righteousness well may grace be the author of works my friends but don't rest on the works if you're a gracious soul the love to the people of

[38:52] God will cause you to do for them and as you are enabled to do so to be their strength and comfort and so on you'll do works but it might be works of righteousness to rest on it will be the grace and mercy of God I knew an old minister years ago he's gone to glory a long time now and when he worked he had an adversary and he was forever the subject of this adversary and then in the course of time this person this adversary becomes sick and very poorly and I was going to say I suppose you might say unable to do even the most usual things and he said to me he didn't say to try and draw some merit from it but he said you know the man that was the greatest adversary I went every day and shaved now that was the work of grace that was in that minister's heart not in that man who was being intended to and I believe grace in the soul my friends will make the pleasure of doing things for the people of God grace in the soul love to their souls and love to Christ because you read the place surely you read it in the word of God that what you do for them you do it for

[40:23] Christ's sake but these are not works of righteousness to lean on for your own salvation God forbid God forbid that you rest there not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us he saved us mercy world at times God the Lord help us to look again I did the reason if I might use the word reason but maybe may I put it this way the purpose of including verse 4 verse 6 rather at one time I looked at verses 3 4 and 5 but when I looked at verse 6 I felt I couldn't leave it out because it's got this word which he shed on us and I couldn't leave that out I couldn't leave that out which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus

[41:24] Christ well there we must leave it Amen the Lord will there will be a prayer meeting this week on Tuesday evening and no service on Wednesday our pastor is engaged to preach here next Lord's Day it is closed with him 749 949 I hear a righteous man a prophet good and great in deep distress complain and thus his grief relate I call on God and cry and shout but all my prayer he shut his hand let every drooping saint keep waiting evermore and though exceeding faint knock on at mercy's door still cry and shout till night is past for daylight will spring up at last hymn 749 tune 555

[42:53] O my dear and righteous man 1969 Johanna Is child d rich dari songM best to m send to you he th estás listening to Oh oh what R My God's faith shall and earth

[44:00] Thank you.

[44:30] But still the blood is suffering Like falconet Jacqueline For as we send we'll share with you in the DDRB song I repoed in Resource Apostle Paul Jesus says and His grandmother appendix And Christrais provosa여 H iron debt is onlyального over a dream

[45:52] Dist veut my mission Dauthor mi paris Oh Oh Oh

[47:18] Oh Oh Oh Oh

[48:20] Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh It is thy blessing Lord we pray for and oh forgive and pardon all that has been a mess.

[48:52] Now be with us through the day and bring us together later Lord we pray thee and do abide with us. Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus and the love of God the Father, communion and fellowship of the Holy Spirit remain with us now and always.

[49:16] Amen.