From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Part two of a series. Read part one.

Editor's Note: As we continue to present the second chapter of Arthur W. Pink's Profiting From the Word, we now come to the section in which he deals with the great conflict of the ages: the battle being waged by fallen man under the sway of Satan for supremacy over his Creator. Once again, how timeless are these truths, and how strikingly relevant to the world's present condition! This is precisely the battle we see raging in our world today. There is, as Pink asserts, only one answer: "to give Him the throne of our hearts." - Dr. Paul Elliott

The great controversy between the Creator and the creatures [made in His image] has been whether He or they should be God, whether His wisdom or theirs should be the guiding principle of their actions, whether His will or theirs should be supreme. That which brought about the fall of Lucifer was his resentment at being in subjection to his Master; "Thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt My throne above the stars of God...I will be like the most High" (Isaiah 14:13-14). The lie of the serpent which lured our first parents to their destruction was, "Ye shall be as gods" (Genesis 3:5). And ever since then the heart-sentiment of the natural man has been, "Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him?" (Job 21:14-15). "Our lips are our own, who is Lord over us?" (Psalm 12:4). "We are lords; we will come no more unto Thee" (Jeremiah 2:31).

Sin has alienated man from God (Ephesians 4:18). His heart is averse to Him; his will is opposed to His; his mind is at enmity against Him. Contrariwise, salvation means being restored to God: "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). Legally that has already been done; experimentally it is in process of accomplishment. Salvation means being reconciled to God; and that involves and includes sin's dominion over us being broken, enmity within us being slain, and the heart being won to God. This is what true conversion is: it is a tearing down of every idol, a renouncing of the empty vanities of a cheating world, and taking God for our Portion, our Ruler, our All in all. Of the Corinthians we read that they "first gave their own selves unto the Lord" (2 Corinthians 8:5). The desire and determination of those truly converted is that they "should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again" (2 Corinthians 5:15).

God's claims are now recognized; His rightful dominion over us is acknowledged; He is owned [that is, acknowledged] as God. The converted yield themselves "unto God, as those that are alive from the dead," and their members as "instruments of righteousness unto God" (Romans 6:13). This is the demand which He makes upon us: to be our God, to be served as such by us; for us to be and do, absolutely and without reserve, whatsoever He demands, surrendering ourselves fully to Him (see Luke 14:26, 27, 33). It belongs to God as God to legislate, prescribe, determine for us; it belongs to us as a bounden duty to be ruled, governed, disposed of by Him at His pleasure.

To own God as our God is to give Him the throne of our hearts. It is to say in the language of Isaiah 26:13, "O Lord our God, other lords beside Thee have had dominion over us: but by Thee only will we make mention of Thy name." It is to declare with the Psalmist, not hypocritically, but sincerely, "O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee" (Psalm 63:1). Now it is in proportion as this becomes our actual experience that we profit from the Scriptures. It is in them, and in them alone, that the claims of God are revealed and enforced, and just as far as we are obtaining clearer and fuller views of God's rights, and are yielding ourselves thereto, are we really being blessed.

Next: The Spiritual Profit of Deeper Reverence for God's Commandments

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