So because of this it’s we tune in to out-of women, teenagers, and you will fathers in the Christ

4th, walking having Goodness indicates the making progress or improves about divine lifestyle. Walking seems to suppose a progressive motion – a person that walks, though he move slowly, yet he goes forward, and does not continue in one place. And so it is with those that walk with God. They go on, as the Psalmist says, “from strength to strength;” or, in the language of the apostle Paul, “they pass from glory to glory, even by the Spirit of the Lord.” ??????Indeed, in one sense, the divine life admits of neither increase nor decrease. When a soul is born of God, to all intents and purposes he is a child of God; and though he should live to the age of Methuselah, yet he would then be only a child of God after all. And upon this account it is that the apostle exhorts Timothy, “to let his progress be made known to all men.” And what is here required of Timothy in particular, by Peter is enjoined on all Christians in general – “But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” For the new creature increases in spiritual stature; and though a person can but be a new creature, yet there are some that are more dating in New York conformed to the divine image than others, and will after death be admitted to a greater degree of blessedness. For want of observing this distinction, even some gracious souls, that have better hearts than heads, (as well as men of corrupt minds, reprobates concerning the faith) have unawares run into downright Antinomian principles, denying all growth of grace in a believer, or any marks of grace to be laid down in the scriptures of truth. From such principles, and more especially from practices naturally consequent on such principles, may the Lord of all lords deliver us!

But in other experience, the fresh new divine lifestyle acknowledges out-of decays and enhancements

Very first, believers carry on with and sustain its walk with God of the reading out-of His holy Keyword. “Search the scriptures,” says our blessed Lord, “for these are they that testify of Me.” And the psalmist tells us “that God’s Word was a light unto his feet, and a lantern unto his paths;” “that his delight is in the law of the Lord, and that he meditates upon it day and night.” Says Paul to Timothy, “Give thyself to reading.” `And says God to Joshua, “this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth.” For whatever was written in earlier times “was written for our instruction.” And “the Word of God is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correc- tion, and for training in righteousness, that the true child of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” If we once get above our Bibles, and cease making the written word of God our sole rule both as to faith and practice, we shall soon lie open to all manner of delusion, and be in great danger of making shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. Our blessed Lord, though He had the Spirit of God without measure, yet always was governed by, and fought the devil with, “It is written.” This the apostle calls the “sword of the Spirit.” The scriptures are called “the living oracles of God,” not only because they are generally made use of to beget in us a new life, but also to keep up and increase it in the soul. The apostle Peter, in his second epistle, prefers it even to seeing Christ transfigured upon the mount. For after he had said, “This voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount” (2 Pet 1:18), he adds, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts;” that is, till we shake off these bodies, and see Jesus face to face. Till then we must see and converse with Him through the glass of His Word. We must make His testimonies our counselors, and daily, with Mary, sit at Jesus’ feet, by faith hearing His Word. We shall then by happy experience find, that they are spirit and life, meat indeed and drink indeed, to our souls. ???