We get entangled with some idol
LISTEN to audio! Download audio
(You will find it helpful to listen to the audio above, as you read the text below.)
Wherever the grace of God is, it constrains its partaker to desire to live to His honor and glory.
But he soon finds the difficulty of so doing. Such is . . .
the weakness of the flesh,
the power of sin,
the subtlety of Satan,
the strength of temptation, and
the snares spread on every side for our feet,
that we can neither do what we want, nor be what we want.
Before we are well aware, we get entangled with some idol, or drawn aside into some indulgence of the flesh, which brings darkness into the mind, and may cut us out some bitter work for the rest of our days.
But we thus learn not only the weakness of the flesh, but where and in whom all our strength lies.
And as the grace of the Lord Jesus, in its suitability, in its sufficiency and its super-aboundings, becomes manifested in and by the weakness of the flesh; a sense of His wondrous love and care in so bearing with us, in so pitying our case, and manifesting mercy where we might justly expect wrath—constrains us with a holy obligation to walk in His fear and to live to His praise.