"dead in trespasses and sins." We have therefore, naturally, no desire
Jealousy for God in a Godless World
Notes of an Address at one of the Clifton Conferences of Christians.
"I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts."—1 Kings 19:10
WE have especially, dear Christian friends, to notice that we are to be jealous for God; for His honour and His glory, and not for our own honour and glory; not for our own reputation and name, not for our party, our ecclesiastical position, nor even for our particular religious notions. The spirit of that holy man of God, John the Baptist, when he said, with reference to the Lord Jesus, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30), should be aimed after by us. The more we are willing, like him, to go down in our own esteem, and in seeking our own honour, the more we are fit to be used by the Lord; and He will also see to it that we are honoured by Him, because we seek to honour Him (1 Sam. 2:30).
As in everything, so in jealousy, or zeal, for the honour of God, our adorable Lord Jesus is to us the perfect example, whom we have to set before us, and whom we have to seek to imitate. But in order to be able in any degree to imitate Him, we have,—
1. Through faith in Him to obtain spiritual life; for we are naturally "dead in trespasses and sins." We have therefore, naturally, no desire whatever to seek the honour of God: yea, are unconcerned about it when He is dishonoured. But when we have become the children of God, through faith in the Lord Jesus, and are thus reconciled to God, and have our sins forgiven, we begin to seek to please God, seek to