Those that receive and obey the
Lord are enlightened and blessed and saved; those that resist and
reject Him are sadly left to themselves and surely swallowed up
in destruction.
Likewise the professing Christian who hears of heart-holiness and
cleansing from all sin as a blessing he may now have by faith,
and, convicted of his need of the blessing and of God's desire
and willingness to bestow it upon him now, refuses to seek it in
whole-hearted affectionate consecration and faith, is resisting
the Holy Spirit. And such resistance imperils the soul beyond all
possible computation.
We see an example of this in the Israelites who were brought out
of Egypt with signs and wonders, and led through the Red Sea and
the wilderness to the borders of Canaan, but, forgetting,
refused to go over into the land. In this they resisted the Holy
Spirit in His leadings as surely as did Pharaoh, and with quite
as disastrous results to themselves, perishing in their evil way.
For their sin was as much greater than his as their light
exceeded his.
Hundreds of years later, Isaiah, writing of this time, says: "In
all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His
presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed
them; and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old. But
they rebelled, and vexed His Holy Spirit; therefore He was turned
to be their enemy, and He fought against them" (Isaiah lxiii.
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